Burial At Sea: Episode 1, What Might Have Been
by Solarmech
Summary: An adaptation of the early story line for Burial At Sea. Contains spoilers for Burial At Sea.
1. Chapter 1

Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

Chapter 1

This is an approximation of the original storyline for Burial at Sea, as such it contains spoilers.

* * *

He heard a woman's voice. Hard to make out. "-come - -"

Then a man's. "-tear - unstable -"

"-fine - hurry!"

"-the deal -off -hear me? The deal -give her back!" A desperate voice screamed faintly.

Sounded like his voice.

He awoke coughing. Damn, had fallen asleep at his desk again. There was someone pounding on the door. Must have been what woke him up. Another bill collector?

The only light on in the room was the lamp on his desk. Some light came through the half closed blinds on the left side of the room, but the bright lights of the city outside left most of his office in shadow. The room smelled of old cigarettes and alcohol.

The door opened, allowing a flood of light in, and with that light came a woman. All he could see was her silhouette, but she had quiet the figure.

He cleared his throat. "We're closed."

The door closed, again plunging the room into shadow.

He glanced at the calendar on his desk. "December 31, 1958" it said as the woman sauntered towards the windows.

"You don't look the sort who can afford to turn down legitimate work." the woman told him.

She had a beautiful voice, but it was hard and had more than hint of dislike in it. The woman stopped by the window with her back to him and struck a pose with a cigarette held high in her left hand. She had dark shoulder length hair, white blouse with a black collar and cuffs with a black knee length skirt, fishnet stockings and high heels.

Not exactly business attire.

He coughed again, ignored the bottles of alcohol and racing forms on his desk to stand. "What do you want?"

"How about we start with a light?"

He walked over to her and she turned to face him. Still couldn't see her face that well in the darkness.

With is left hand he snapped his fingers, igniting a Devil's Kiss flame and held it out to her.

"You got a name, miss?" he asked in a measured neutral voice.

"Elizabeth."

She leaned forward to light the cigarette and he got a good look at the woman's face. First thing he saw were her eyes. Those big blue eyes were the kind a man could lose himself in. But for him, all they did was remind him of what he had lost.

This Elizabeth was younger than he had first thought, maybe 20 years old, but the pale makeup and bright red lipstick made it hard to tell. At her neck was a ribbon that matched her lips holding a silver and black pendant of a bird.

She lit the cigarettes and blew out a cloud of smoke.

"You can call me Elizabeth."

"What can I do for you?"

Elizabeth pulled out a photograph and handed it to him. "There's a girl who needs be found. Maybe you know her." As she gave him the photo he noticed she was missing part of the little finger on her right hand and had it covered with a thimble.

A glance at the photo was all he needed. "Where did you get this?" he demanded.

"Do you know her?" Elizabeth asked sternly.

He looked back to the picture, running his fingers over it. The image showed a young girl with big blue eyes hugging a teddy bear. She had dark hair tied in a ponytail and she was smiling at the camera.

"It's Anna, my.. my daughter."

"And *where* is your daughter, Mr. DeWitt?" She walked up took the photo from him as if he didn't deserve it.

"Dead. She's… dead." He couldn't keep his voice clacking a little.

"Lost." Elizabeth declared.

He started to get angry again. "Listen, I don't know what you're-"

"Lost isn't dead, but I need help to find this girl. Do this job and the debt will be cleared."

"I don't follow."

"I think you will." Elizabeth told him and coolly walked of his office without another word.

Booker stood in the dark office a moment feeling more than a little bewildered. Who was this Elizabeth? Was, could, Anna still be alive? No, she couldn't be. She was dead. He had seen…

But… but if there were even the smallest chance… No choice, there was no choice, he HAD to know, even if it meant walking into a trap.

He walked behind the desk picking up what money he had. He'd spent, no, wasted what little he had left on gambling and alcohol these past few months. He looked around the room. His unmade bed, the empty bottles, crumpled papers and dirty clothes on floor didn't make for a pleasing sight. Around the office were a couple tables, some filing cabinets, a large floor mounted heater in the corner. All the furniture had the smooth lines of Art Deco styling, even the fan on the side table was Art Deco.

If there was something to what this Elizabeth said and she left… Better catch up to her fast.

Upon opening it he was blinded for a moment by the bright lights and he heard music playing. As his eyes adjusted the first thing he saw was The Sign. It said "No Gods" "Or Kings" "Only Man." In the center of it was a stylized face with a thin mustache and receding hairline.

Andrew Ryan, Founder of the City of Rapture.

Elizabeth was leaning against the polished metal railing to the left, a slightly satisfied smirk on her face. "It seems my instincts were correct."

"Where's Anna?" he demanded.

"I don't know. But I know someone who does. Follow me." She started to turn to go down the wide curved stairway down to Market Street.

He didn't move. "What's my daughter to you?"

The woman turned back. "What I require of her is my business. But I know where to start looking. A man with your particular talents could be useful."

"What you want with my daughter certainly IS my business."

Elizabeth frowned slightly in irritation. "No harm will come to the girl from me. If you don't believe that, you can go back into your office." She turned around and strutted down the stairs.

He stood a moment thinking. "Damn it." He muttered to himself and walked down the stairs after her.

As they went down the stairs he looked out the huge glass window the city of Rapture beyond. Tall buildings full of shining lights, advertisements and walkways. A whale slowly cruised by the window obscuring the Kashmiri Restaurant across the way.

It was still fairly early, but Market Street was already busy. Women admiring babies, people reading newspapers, taking in the view, discussing philosophy, matters of the heart (or lack of) and current events. And since it was New Year's Eve, many were drinking and wore their best clothes and fanciest jewelry.

Market Street was a mix of apartment and small businesses and rather well to do. Wasn't Olympus Heights, but that was fine with him. The floors were mostly polished tile with geometric patterns in them. Some walls were made of red marble and had polished steel or brass inlays. Chairs, tables and benches were common in this part of the street and most of them allowed you to look out of the city through the multi-story window that made up one "wall" of the street.

Marge called to him as he walked past. "Hey, Booker! If you have spare time, why don't you spend some of it with me? You can even bring your friend."

He ignored her, but noticed a brief look of disgust on Elizabeth's face.

Over the speaker system an announcement about "parasites" played. He's taken to ignoring them. Most were advertisements or propaganda and he had little use for either. Played some decent music on occasion though.

The elevator was at the far end of Market Street and a bit of a walk. First thing they passed was a news kiosk with a blackboard proclaiming that "Fontaine's thugs ROT in Fontaine's Department store." in front of it. He took a few steps towards Sinclair Spirits out of habit, but stopped himself. Wouldn't be needing anything from there today. Next they past the Satyr Lounge and then it was up the curved stairway to "Little Wonders".

Before he got to the stairs, he passed two men with their arms around each other looking out the window. Huh, Robert and James seemed to be back together. While their spats make for good gossip, the two were very happy together.

Up in front of Little Wonders there were two giant statues of Little Sisters in white and red dress's playing that damn song about "being free". The statues were holding a sign that dwarfed them proclaiming "Emancipated Children, Emancipated Ideas". They couldn't walk in front of the statues because of a group of people talking loudly blocked the way.

As they went around the back of the statues, Elizabeth stopped dead in her tracks. She was looking at eight young girls standing as if at attention. Four of the girls wore white and blue dresses, the others white and red. The dresses were the same style as those on the statues and they had white paint on their faces. A tall woman in black stood in front of them giving some sort of lesson.

"What happened to these children? What are they?" Elizabeth asked, clearly put off.

"Where've you been, a cabin in Arcadia? They're Little Sisters. ADAM factories." He told her flatly.

"It's grotesque." She said as all the Little Sisters turned to look at him. They were all smiling, but there was emptiness in their faces, like they really weren't there. Then they all turned back to the woman in black at the same moment, almost like a machine.

"Nothing to be done for it." He told Elizabeth as they walked around the group. He made sure to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Then it was down another flight of stairs and past the Jet Postal where several people were waiting to send packages. To the left was a Securis Door that slowly opened as the got close to it. Through a huge window they could see a massive figure in a heavy diving suit worrying some rock with a massive drill on the suit's right arm. Yellow light shined from all the small portholes on the suit's oversized helmet. Standing by the railing was a couple who were watching the worker and they wondered who or what was inside the suit. Sometimes he had wondered a little about it as well. The suit was too big for a normal person and was so heavy the floor shook when one walked past.

As he and Elizabeth continued past, the worker turned around and shot the end of the drill like a giant harpoon with a cable trailing out behind it. The Bouncer then pulled itself up after the drill using a winch built into the suit's arm.

Who, or what, was in those suits was somebody else's problem. Had more than enough of his own right now.

A man with blond hair in a dark grey suit walked up to them going the other way. It was Alex Harwich, a businessman who had sometimes made use of his services.

"Nice to see you sober, Booker. Hope it lasts." Alex told him as he gave Elizabeth an admiring look.

"She's a client" he told Alex to keep him from getting any ideas. Alex chuckled slightly, then continued on down the street.

When they got to the 907 Apartments, he took a small detour to go inside. He had an arrangement with the owners, he helped keep things quiet there and the owners made sure that things of interest got sent his way. He looked under the counter near the doors to see if there was anything in the drop and saw an Audio Diary. Always wondered why people left these things all over the place, not that he minded. He'd broke more than one case because of what he had found recorded on one of them.

He noticed there was a new photo of a missing girl on the wall. Lot of young girls gone missing in Rapture the past few months. He's been hired to try and find a few of them, but hit a brick wall. Then a day, sometimes just hours later, he would suddenly be UN-hired. Someone had leaned on the parents and leaned hard. They wouldn't even him give straight answer about who it was. He had his suspicions, but no proof. Got the feeling if he had found something, he might not have lived long enough to tell anyone.

As he walked out the doors of the apartments he played the Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Sander Cohen: Doing Well By Doing Good_

 _December the 10th, 1958_

 _Ryan's been good to me… Few are the patrons who truly understand the struggle of the artist. But even I was a little leery when he shuttered Fontaine's business and sent that bald buck to a grave deep in the briny. But when Ryan buried all of Fontaine's pals in that department store, someone had to find a home for all those freshly minted orphans. And if I turned a dollar or two in the process, you can hardly blame me for doing well by doing good._

* * *

Sander Cohen, that was the kind of person had done his best to avoid. He noticed Elizabeth looked a bit irritated. Guess she hadn't liked the side trip he had taken.

They continued up another flight stairs around a bend and past more propaganda. It was impressive the amount of time and money that Ryan had spent on it. Stupid, but impressive. A good example was the 40 foot tall waterfall made of stone with the words Art, Science, and Industry carved into it. If Ryan spent a little money in places like Artemis Suites, he wouldn't need all the propaganda.

As they passed the Andalusian Arms there was a Constable from Rapture Security walking into the lobby, Masterson he thought. The cop was dressed in a long black overcoat, boots and an oversized hat. Always thought they looked more like firemen than cops.

When they got to the steps leading up to the elevator he realized something had been bothering him about Elizabeth. "Funny."

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"You not knowing about the Little Sisters. How long have you been in Rapture?"

"Let's just say I don't get out much." She told him as she pressed the button to call the elevator.

"You've got eyes and ears don't you?"

She turned around to face him, a hard expression on her face. "If I wanted to share my life's story Mr. DeWitt, I would write my memoirs. If I learned anything about Rapture, I thought it was a place that people understood to mind their own business."

She was up to something and he didn't like getting led around by his nose like this. "Where are we headed?"

"The man we need to see is in the Garden of the Muses."

"How do you know-"

"My sources are my own, Mr. DeWitt. If you have better information as to the whereabouts of the girl, I suggest you avail yourself of it."

As she finished speaking the elevator doors opened. He followed her inside and slammed the button to activate the elevator and it started to rise.

He wasn't going to let it go that easily. "Where are you taking me."

"When's the last time you saw the girl?"

"Her name is Anna." He reminded her.

Elizabeth ignored him. "She was taken from you, wasn't she?"

"How do you know all this?"

"She was taken. Down at Apollo Square and-"

"I had a meeting. It was for-" He stopped talking, she didn't need to know why he'd been down there.

She looked at him with a mixture of anger and disgust, like he had committed some unforgivable crime. Maybe he had. "What was it for Mr. DeWitt?"

"Not important now. There was a raid by Rapture Security, fighting. Anna… disappeared."

"And…"

"Four days later, cop friend of mine, Sullivan. Says they found… they found her floating in the docks."

"You see the body?"

He didn't answer.

"Did you see the body?" Elizabeth demanded.

"Yes!" He yelled back, then took a moment to collect himself. "I saw… She'd been… hit by one of the big fishing submarines. The props..."

"An unidentifiable corpse wearing the girl's dress, nothing more." She coldly informed him. "Something to convince you she was dead."

"What?" Could someone have faked Anna's death? Why? And why was this Elizabeth telling him this now?

"This world values children, not childhood." She threw her cigarette on the floor and stepped on it. "There's a profit to be made and men who make it. I'm taking you to one of them."

"Auh!" His head hurt all of a sudden. A vision of a dark ally and two figures he couldn't make out.

"Mr. DeWitt, you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just get these spells sometimes. It'll pass."

The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened. He turned and found a man in a bright white jacket and black pants. "Refreshment, sir? Madam?"

"We're fine, thanks." He told the waiter.

As he finished speaking the waiter vanished in a red and black cloud. Moments later he appeared half across the room offering a woman a light. Then he appeared at the bar to mix a drink. The Le Temps Perdu's waiters gave some of the best service in the city. Of course when you can use Plasmids to teleport and create ice for drinks, things get done fast.

Elizabeth led the way over to the left past the Robertson's Tobaccoria, Herr Schmidt was working today and nodded to him as they walked past. Guess she didn't want to take the chance he would stop for a drink with one of the many patrons already boozing it up. Still, Melvin saw him and invited him over, but he ignored the invitation.

Then they walked out into a massive atrium over 100 feet tall. To the right was a stylized statue of the city surrounded by flowing water, stairways led all over the place and long green or red banners hung from the ceiling with things like "Liberty" and "Commerce" on them. Everywhere was bright metal, polished red marble and brilliant lights. Unlike Market Street, High Street was all business.

Down a short flight of step directly ahead were men in masks, white jackets and dark pants standing on ten foot tall pillars. The mask the men wore were white with gold trim, like the kind used in masquerades. The odd thing about the masks was that they had large rabbit ears on them. Every few moments the men would strike a pose then change to a different one. Some kind of performance art.

The pillars and men formed path that led up to a heavy steel door with a view window in it. Looked like the door to a speakeasy in an old gangster movie. Above the door was a huge marque with the name "Cohen" on it with blinding lights all around. On top of the marque as another man in white and black changing poses like the others, a spot light at his feet cast a monstrous shadow on the curved wall behind the marque.

"Mr. DeWitt. We'll find my source inside that club." Elizabeth told him gesturing to Cohen's.

"Cohen? What does that lunatic have to do with Anna?"

Elizabeth didn't answer, but turned and walked towards the door of Cohen's club. Didn't have much choice but to follow. There was a large sign on either side of the doorway, but he ignored them. Elizabeth didn't and read the one to the right of the door out loud.

"Private Party. No entry without invitation."

"We'll see about that." He told Elizabeth as he walked up to the door and pounded on it. The small view window in the door opened after just a moment.

"Which business do you represent, sir?"

"Uh, business?" Maybe he should have read the signs after all.

The doorman became irritated. "Yes, which business?"

"DeWitt Investigations."

"Mr. Cohen does not truck with private detectives. Masks of invitation went to artists and craftsmen alone."

Elizabeth had moved up to the left side of the door, out of the line of sight of the doorman inside. "I'm with the Artist's Struggle. We're expected."

"No mask, no entry." The doorman told them stiffly and the window abruptly slammed shut.

"Not getting past that stuffed shirt." He muttered. Looking over the door it seemed to be solidly built, would need a battering ram or explosives to get through it. Not the best option, but he would blow the door down if he had to.

Elizabeth had a different idea. "These invitation-masks he spoke of - they must have gone out to local artisans."

"Well... I guess we'll have to persuade someone to loan us one."

Elizabeth went looked at the other sign and read it aloud, like he couldn't read it for himself. "The business of Rapture is business... Says it's sponsored by the Artist's Struggle, the Golden Rule, and Rapture Records."

"I guess those stores would be a good of place to start as any..."

They started walking towards The Golden Rule as it was closest.

He still wasn't sure how far he could trust this Elizabeth. Time to dig a little. "What brung you to Rapture?"

"A man" she told him.

"Really? You don't strike me as the romantic type."

"Wasn't that kind of man."

"Then what?"

"There's a debt that needs repaying."

"I've known my share of shylocks. You're no shylock." Knowing she wasn't a shylock didn't tell him who this Elizabeth was, but it was a step in the right direction.

"Wasn't that kind of debt."

They passed three people talking about the people imprisoned in Fontaine's Department store. One of the trio, a man with a Russian accent compared Fontaine's to a gulag. Support for Ryan was really slipping if people on High Street were being openly critical of him.

Then they were standing in front of the doors to the Golden Rule. Elizabeth stopped him before he could push them open. "Invitations to Cohen's shows are highly coveted. Nobody's going to just hand us one."

"You think you can figure out a way to distract the store owner while I take a look around?"

"You just find the mask. Leave the distractions to me." She told him as he opened the doors.

A distinguished elderly man with a neatly trimmed mustache was looking through a jeweler's loop behind the counter. He told them "Welcome" in a soft French accent, but didn't look up.

He went up the counter. "Excuse me. The lady has some questions for you."

Upon hearing Booker's voice the shop owner, Julian if he remembered right, looked up from the ring he had been examining. "Yes, of course." He said and started to walk out from behind the counter.

"I'm interested in this piece." Elizabeth told the owner. She was standing over by a display on the right hand side of the story that held a single expensive looking ring. The shop owner walked up to her describing ring, how it was a 18 carat gold ring with natural sapphires and diamonds, and a lot of other details. He didn't think it was any coincidence that while the owner was talking to Elizabeth, his back was to the counter. This allowed him to slip into the back of the store without being seen.

Once in back he started looking around. He could hear Elizabeth launch into an angry tirade about the ring being stolen from her mother's grave. That caught Julian off guard, but that wouldn't last long. The back had a few shelves with some boxes, a work bench with tools to clean and repair jewelry, filing cabinets, a desk and a safe.

He looked into the safe and there is was, a fancy box Cohen's name on it. But when he opened it he found it was empty.

"Damn it. Must be somewhere else."

While the safe was open, he might as well take a moment to help himself to the rest of its constants. A ring, some money and a small gold bar. Not a bad haul. The exchange out front was getting more heated, better get back before something happened.

Julian was yelling. "You come into my shop and talk this trash? I don't think so. Hit the bricks, you tramp, or I'll see to it they hit you." Julian didn't have a French accent anymore, it was New York City one now. No surprise about that.

As he walked back to the front he heard Elizabeth yell "Get your hands off me!" He rushed to the door just in time to see Elizabeth kick Julian in the groin, hard. The man hit the floor and didn't move.

Seemed this Elizabeth could take care of herself.

"Might be best if we were gone when he wakes up." She told him. "Any luck?"

"Nothin'. Let's find another shop."

Elizabeth was the first out the door. "Where should we look next? Upstairs at the Artist's Struggle or Rapture Records straight ahead?" She seemed familiar with High Street. Odd for someone who claimed they didn't get out much.

He didn't say anything, but started off for Rapture Records.

As they walked he asked "How'd you know that they got some of their stock by robbing graves? Didn't think that was common knowledge."

Elizabeth gave him a quick glance. "I didn't." She admitted with no reluctance or surprise.

This Elizabeth wasn't one to let things stand in her way. Up a short flight of stairs and they were in front of their next shop to check. Rapture Records was a big place with records covering the wall along with some musical instruments, including an oversized white grand piano, on display.

They walked in and the man behind the counter was busy reading the inside of a record sleeve and didn't notice him until he was up the counter. When the shopkeep put down the record he could see he wasn't that old, maybe late twenties. Short brown hair, drab colored clothes, even had a sweater on. He could hear Elizabeth humming along with the music playing over the oversized gramophone on the left side of the store.

"You see that dish I walked in with? Well, you give her the star treatment, pal, and I'll make it worth your while."

"Of course, right away." The man came out from behind the counter and walked over to where Elizabeth stood by the gramophone. "What is this piece?" She asked in a low, almost husky voice.

"It's by Trenet, but of course, covered by Mr. Reinhardt."

The shopkeep's back was to the counter and he quickly headed into the back of the store.

"Oh, it's lovely. Isn't it lovely?"

"Oh, yes."

As Elizabeth went to work on her mark, he quickly searched. A couple crates that probably held records, a few boxes, a purse. Needed to go farther in. He went past a workbench where a violin was being refurbished and shelves of violin cases and assorted junk.

"Where is he hidin' that box..."

Then he saw a desk stuck between some filing cabinets, and next to a trumpet was the box from Cohen. He opened it up, but like the one at the Golden Rule, it was empty.

"Damn. Only one place left." He needed to get back out front.

As he walked from in back he heard her say "Can you turn it up? Oh, it's so intoxicating... but also - but also powerful and masculine..."

"Yes, The finest music... touches us... in places -" The man encouraged.

He wasn't really worried about Elizabeth. Had the feeling she would crew the man up and spit him out if she wanted. But no use wasting time. She saw him and quickly finished up.

"I must go... I must go. Even one more note shall prove my undoing." She was making motions with her hands as if she were faint and quickly left the store, almost at a run.

Once outside she stopped and looked at him. The expression on her face was stern, all trace of the flirtation she had been using on the shopekeep was gone without a trace.

"Did you find it?"

"No. Wasn't there."

"Only one spot left, Mr. DeWitt. That mask better be upstairs at the Artist's Struggle."

They walked up another one of the curved flights of stairs, passing a man in a suit praising Fontaine to a friend saying he was a "regular joe". His friend countered saying Fontaine was a thief , a smuggler and "A Parasite." The term that had become quite the insult here in Rapture.

The stairway was a long one this time and end up near Maison Vosges, one of the finer clothiers in Rapture and certainly about the most expensive. As they walked past he noticed an Audio Diary sitting on the floor next to a trash can. Looked like someone had gone to throw it out and missed.

As he picked it up Elizabeth gave him a look. "You're robbing a trash can?"

"Was layin' out on the floor, not in the can." He told her a bit defensively and played the diary.

* * *

 _Yi Suchong: Observation #33_

 _October the 20th, 1958_

 _Suchong observe strangest of coincidences. On other side of window, man in strange hat experimenting on Suchong's own creation. On Plasmid. Man name of Fink. Outrage! Theft of intellectual property! But - man name of Fink is no fool. Through addition of oxidizing agent, turns Plasmid ingestible through stomach lining. Mr. Ryan very impressed with Suchong's initiative. Theft of intellectual property two-way street._

* * *

Window? Must mean those holes in the air that started popping up around the city a couple months ago. Would have been hard pressed to believe they were real if he hadn't seen a few himself. A city floating in the sky. Only thing he could think of as ridiculous as city in the sky was a city at the bottom of the ocean.

And look where he was.

He glanced at Elizabeth and she had a strange expression on her face, as if something had left a bad taste in her mouth. Suchong did have that effect on people.

Up another short flight of stairs and across a balcony with a fountain and one of those "Need To Know Theater" machines between a couple slot machines. This one was titled "Taking the Taint Out Of Fontaine". The way Ryan obsessed about Fontaine, you'd think he was still alive.

Ahead was the Artist's Struggle. As they walked in the first thing they saw was a gigantic grey stone head sitting in the middle of the shop. He knew it wasn't actually stone, but it looked like it. On the walls of the gallery were oversized paintings by different artists and around the place were a few small tables and chairs. They walked around the stone head to the counter where a man was seated reading a paper. He was a bit odd by Rapture standards. Dark hair in what he'd heard called a "mop top" haircut, round wire framed glasses, a mouche and a bright red cravat. His eyes were oddly staring.

Elizabeth had gone off to the side to look at one of the paintings, so he walked up to the man. "Hey pal, wanna' help out the little lady?"

"Yes, of course." The man walked from behind the counter to where Elizabeth stood by an ugly painting. The painting showed what looked a like a human face that was screaming and wore a set of long ears. All around the face was a riot of color.

"Interesting – isn"t it? An original Sander Cohen... He calls it: "Miasma.""

He slipped behind the counter while Elizabeth played the man. "I'm sorry, but I know precious little about art." She put just the right tone in her voice to make herself sound like someone who wasn't very smart, but still wanted to learn something.

"How does it make you feel?" the man asked her.

"I don't want to open my mouth, for fear of what foolishness might tumble out."

He was in the back of the shop now. The less time they spent here, the better. Shelves, a few small crates and a lot of whisky. The good stuff at that.

"Would you like me to tell you what it means?"

"Oh, would you? Oh, I would like so much to understand."

All he could see were art supplies, a painting that someone was still working on, more whisky and a few desks. But no box from Cohen. Where was it? There were still some filing cabinets, a safe and one last desk.

"In this piece, Cohen intended to show us the struggle of the great man - condemned to breathe the swampy air of the parasite." The shopkeep told Elizabeth in a slightly grandiose tone.

"You see all that in that little picture?"

There on the last desk was the box. We quickly walked up and opened it. Inside was a white and gold rabbit mask.

"There you are, you little son of a bitch." He picked the mask up and hurried to the front of the store.

"Yes, in fact... Now, did your companion go -". This shopkeep was a little sharper than the other two had been.

"Oh, what's this one? Oh, please, it's so beautiful... What does it mean?"

"Oh my dear, that is something truly extraordinary... Shall I explain?"

He headed for the door as Elizabeth gave him some cover. "You've given me so much to think about... I feel a trifle swoony... Would you mind if I returned tomorrow for further education?"

"I shall be here at your service." The shopkeeper genuinely seemed interested in teaching Elizabeth.

"Good, you have the mask." She told him when they were outside.

He pulled it from under his vest to show her. "Third time's the charm."

"All right. It's best if we head back to Cohen's."

On the walk back he had a few moments to think about Elizabeth and how he played them.

"Fine piece of work back with those shopkeeps. You've got a bit of the grifter in you."

"For that you can thank my father. He was a man comfortable in a variety of roles." There was an odd tone her voice, regret or sadness.

The club was just ahead, men in rabbit masks still striking poses in front of it. "Time to see Cohen." He told Elizabeth.

End Chapter One.

Authors Notes: While this story is likely accurate in its broad strokes in regards to the original storyline, there are some things that are certainly dead wrong just because only a fraction of the original storyline is known, but it's not like anyone from 2K or Ghost Story is going to give us a rundown anytime soon to fix any mistakes. This should be considered an "average" run through of a person playing the game and some stuff will be missed. However everything needed to understand what happens will be found, though I will have to cheat a little to do so. You may have already noticed a few of these cheats.

I must also note that I am not putting all the removed material from the original plotline into this story. That is because some of the cut material does not mesh well with the story and because there are better ideas in the final version. Things get cut for reasons. A good example is there was originally a required quest to find the Radar Range to power open a door. I really have no idea how that was supposed to work, but this quest seems to have been replaced with one where Booker and Elizabeth have to find Shock Jockey. Using Shock Jockey to open doors is a well-established trope in the BioShock series, while providing power to a door with the Radar Range is not. sm


	2. Chapter 2

Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

Chapter Two

With the white and gold rabbit mask in hand he and Elizabeth walked towards the door to Cohen's club. As he got closer he noticed something. What he had dismissed as decorations were actually a rabbit mask like the one he had in his hand. Half of the mask on one side of the door and the other half on the other side. Usually picked up on that sort of thing sooner.

He stopped and put on the mask. Didn't think that just showing the mask to the doorman would work. They were going to have to play by Cohen's rules to find Anna.

He pounded on the door and the window opened a moment later. "Ah! Very well. Mr. Cohen awaits your participation at his performance."

The window closed and the door opened and a bright white light blinded him as he took a step forward. His eyes adjusted and found himself in a totally white room. Elizabeth walked past him seemingly unbothered by the glare of the lights.

"So who is the fellow, Cohen? Some sort of underworld figure?"

There was something at the far end of the room, but he couldn't make it out because of the glare from the lights. They started walking towards it. "Worse. He's an artist."

"An artist who kidnaps children..."

"Cohen's muse is a bit more diverse. I've seen his type. Gets an idea in his head, end of conversation, doesn't matter who gets hurt." Now he was sure this Elizabeth was pulling some kind of grift on him. But he couldn't figure out why or what it was.

As they got closer to the far end of the room he could make out what looked to be a huge hand sticking out of the floor. Behind it was another man in a rabbit mask. As he and Elizabeth got closer the man backed up to the wall behind him and knocked on it. After a few moments a door in the wall slid open.

The corridor beyond looked like it was made of grey stone and was unlit. As they walked further down the corridor the door behind them closed plunging them into darkness. He started to reach for his gun when there was a loud sound and lights came up ahead of them. The lights were in the shape of a rabbit mask and he realized that the corridor itself was the shape of those masks. Cohen was playing games, using lights and darkness to play with people's senses.

As they walked past the set of lights they went dark and another flared to life ahead of them. When they passed through those, a light appeared on the floor ahead. A door was opening from the floor and going up, revealing what was beyond. Through the rabbit mask shaped doorway he could see bright lights and people moving around.

As he and Elizabeth got closer to the doorway he heard a voice. "Dance, dance, move!"

That must be Cohen. They stepped out into a large balcony with steps off to the right going down as "Waltz of the Flowers" played. The people here were all very expensively dresses and wore rabbit masks. Most were white and gold like the one he had, but a few were black and gold. A giant project of a grotesque white face with a penciled mustache and eyebrows looked down on the room from the ceiling and they would flicker and change expression every few moments. Against the far wall were the shadows of two people dancing. Must be them Cohen was talking to.

He started for the stairs going down and noticed something moving on the floor. Rabbits. Cohen certainly had a mania for 'em.

The stairs turned out to be spiral and he could see the center of the room as they went down. Standing on a platform surrounded by water were two people, a man in a sun mask and a woman in moon one. It was their shadows they had seen above. For some reason they had cables attached to their backs. The platform had a bridge to the surrounding floor and there was a man standing in front of a huge canvas, slapping paint on it in frantic motions.

He couldn't see the face, but heard him yell "No... Why do you fail in this fashion?! To embarrass me in front of my muse?" That was Cohen all right.

As the finished walking down the stairs they could hear Cohen rant.

"My muse shall not be mocked!" He declared.

He and Elizabeth reached the main floor and could see the dancers and Cohen better. Cohen was dressed in a loose, paint stained white shirt, dark pants and had something bright red tied around his waist. There were a large number of people here watching Cohen's "performance" and for some reason bathtubs filled up alcoves on the outside of the room.

"Fitzpatrick! The stick!" Cohen called up.

The two dancers begged Cohen to stop, but it did no good. Electricity engulfed the two and they screamed in agony.

"MY MUSE SHALL NOT BE MOCKED!"

The two dancers collapsed, but were still held by the cables. "Get them out of here! There shall be no failure on my canvas!"

The two dancers, or their bodies, were winched upward by the cables as Cohen lamented. "There's no room in Rapture any more for the artist."

No use waiting. He and Elizabeth walked around the pool to where Cohen stood in front of his canvas.

As they got close, Cohen suddenly raised his head and leaned forward towards him while yelling "WHO ARE YOU?"

Cohen probably wanted him to jump back or show some kind of reaction, so he didn't. "Name's DeWitt."

"Is that right?" Cohen cocked his head to the right. "My... this one's a real biscuit." He turned to the audience and asked them. "Isn't he a biscuit, ladies?"

The women in the audience laughed in response and he noticed Elizabeth standing of to his right. What was she up too? Worry about it later. He continued talking to Cohen. "I need to ask you a few questions."

"Questions!" Cohen stated in a grandiose tone. "Yes. Yes! It is the work of man to ask. It is the work of the artist... to answer." As he finished Cohen made a small theatrical bow.

Elizabeth decided to take over by holding out the picture of Anna to Cohen and asking. "You've seen this girl, haven't you?"

"We artists see more than most." Cohen told her. Then in a quiet, almost conspiratorial voice. "You're more than you claim to be, little songbird, are you not?"

Cohen turned back to him. "Watch this one, DeWitt. She'll take you where you don't want to go." He paused theatrically. "But I know the child in that photo is important to you. So many children flit-flit-flit away..."

Elizabeth crossed her arms as Cohen leaned close to her and she looked both irritated and disgusted.

"I know where the girl is. And I will send you to her. In exchange, all I ask...is a dance."

"What?" Cohen wants a dance?

The crown started chanting. "A dance...a dance... a dance..."

The lunatic continued. "I see something in you two... Art strips away artifice. Show me who you are - and I will show you where you need to go..."

As he ranted Elizabeth walked out onto the platform. Seemed she decided to give Cohen what he wanted, but he wasn't so sure after seeing what had happened to the other dancers. She turned to face him and her face was like a mask, expressionless.

"Listen, Cohen, you son of a bitch-"

Elizabeth interrupted him. "Mr. DeWitt.."

"What?"

The she looked away and held out her right hand to him. "Dance with me."

Didn't seem to have much choice, he took he hand and stepped in close. He'd never been one for dancing.

"I shudder to think what greater price he might care to extract." Elizabeth told him in a low voice.

Cohen yelled. "Fitzpatrick!" And the music started to play again. He didn't recognize the song, probably something of Cohen's. "Beauty and pain. They can be no more separated than birth and blood." He ranted.

They started dancing. Elizabeth didn't look very happy and seemed a little embarrassed.

"What do you think Cohen's customers do with the children? Do they..." She asked.

"Sometimes. But those types lack the capital of people like Ryan and Suchong." Even the thought that Anna had fallen into the hands of Cohen's customers or Ryan and Suchong terrified him. He shoved the thought from his mind before it consumed him.

"That's a blessing." At least this Elizabeth could still some sympathy.

"You saw those Little Sisters. You so sure? But if Suchong had Anna... I'd know it." Anna being turned into a Little Sister was one thing he was sure hadn't happened.

"How?"

"Cause I tied him to a chair and asked him."

"So?"

"For 15 hours."

That actually seemed to impress her a little. "I don't know what to make of you, Mr. DeWitt."

Then Cohen went off again. "No, no, no, no, no!"

He was getting sick of this. "Listen, we're not going to keep -"

"Fitzpatrick!" Cohen screamed and before he could move, electricity filled the air.

Must have blacked out because Cohen was suddenly standing over him, looking down. He could hear Elizabeth gasping in pain. Everything was fading in and out as Cohen spoke.

"I see suffering in you..." Cohen got down on one knee and reached down to put a hand on his chest. "I know how to shine a light on your pain. A moth will become a butterfly." Cohen made a sweeping gesture with his arm and the darkness rolled over him.

...

There was a voice, hard to make out. Familiar. Calling his name.

"Mr. DeWitt."

He opened his eyes. It was all blurry, then, something came into focus. A face. Elizabeth. She was shaking him.

"Mr. DeWitt. Are you alright."

"I'm fine."

"You were dreaming... You kept saying your daughter's name, Anna."

"I... never mind." Now that he could see better, he noticed Elizabeth had small cuts on her face and her blouse had tears in it. She didn't get those by being electrocuted. What happened? How long had he been out?

She pulled back and Cohen's voice came over a radio. Radio? What… Where were they?

"Pain and beauty. To an artist, they are parent and child."

"Cohen" He stood up as Cohen talked. They were in a bathysphere and it was moving.

"I'm sending you to find your... young one. No need to thank me. I'm not so sure you'll like what you find."

He looked out the glass door of the sphere and saw Rapture in the distance. All tall buildings and bright lights. They were moving away from it and down deeper into the dark ocean. Had a bad feeling he knew where they were headed.

An ocean ridge cut off the view of Rapture plunging the sphere into darkness. Lights on the sphere came on, illuminating rocks and sea life as they continued to sink. Then a break in the rock and they could see three large shapes that didn't belong.

Elizabeth pointed at them. "Look"

"Fontaine's. Ryan sunk the whole thing to the bottom." Wished he'd been wrong.

They could see the three large buildings more clearly now. Two buildings were tall and relatively thin with an Art Deco seahorse at the top. In between those was a massive building with a face wearing a crown and green eyes. Down the front of the building was the name "Fontaines" in green lights. Below it in smaller lights was "Department Store".

Elizabeth was as puzzled as he. "But it's a prison now. Why would Cohen have sent Anna there?

"I don't know." The thought of Anna in that place made him sick. His fault.

"Everyone has needs." Cohen told them. "I merely provide a service for those who have the means to pay. You'll find your little bird in the housewares department."

He noticed that the smaller building on the left had a sign saying "Housewares" in rotating lights on it. But they were heading towards the main building, not Housewares.

Elizabeth looked back at him a moment as part of a mannequin floated by. "How many people do you suppose Ryan's got locked up in that place?"

"Enough. Fontaine had amassed something near an army. Now they're down there, spliced up and wild." There were getting close to the main building now and lights flickered to life on in. "All right, there's a dock up ahead."

As the entered the dock Elizabeth mused. "Takes a cold son of a bitch to do that to a living person."

"What's that?"

"Burial at sea."

"You read your residency contract with Ryan Industries? "In perpetuity.""

The sphere entered that dock and docking clamps roughly grabbed and hauled it upward.

"We're all buried at sea." He told Elizabeth bitterly.

A few moments later the sphere slid into the docking bay and they broke the surface inside the store. After a few moments the door to the sphere opened allowing the cold outside air in and Elizabeth gaged at the smell. It was a mixture of unwashed bodies, mold and rotting flesh. He activated his Shield and drew his pistol and checked to make sure it was still loaded. All five were rounds were still there. He normally kept one cylinder empty to prevent the gun from going off by accident. But now he wished he had all six filled and had grabbed more ammunition before he left his office.

"Don't get too comfortable. Keep your eyes open." He told Elizabeth as she stepped out of the sphere.

He left the sphere and looked around the station. The place had seen better days, that was for sure. Many of the lights were out, while others flickers leaving much of it dimly lit. Several inches of cold seawater covered the floor and someone had put down boards from the sphere docks towards the steps leading to the upper level, which was still dry. Some of the televisions still worked, showing advertisements for the store, but most were broken or only displayed static. "No Trespassing" signs covered product advertisements while others stated that Fontaine's had been closed by "Order of the Council".

That was a joke. The Council did what Ryan told them to do. He glanced over at the other sphere dock and saw that it was blocked by a half sunken sphere. Elizabeth started forward towards a half frozen dead body sitting on one of the nearby benches.

She looked at the body a moment, then dismissed it and started looking over towards one of the two Information Desks on either side of the station. Most people would have reacted to finding a dead body like that, but this Elizabeth acted like it was nothing new.

"Seem to be some supplies this way, Mr. DeWitt."

He walked over towards her and started searching behind the counter. "It's "Booker.""

"What?"

"Just call me "Booker."" First thing he found was a small medical kit, which was good. Cohen's shock treatment had hurt a lot.

"If it's all the same to you, let's leave it at "Mr. DeWitt.""

He had the sudden vision silhouette of a man with light, no a door with frosted glass behind him. The man was covered in shadows and he couldn't see his face. There was a voice saying something, but he couldn't make out what. He shook his head to clear it and finished searching the area, but found little else. He walked to the other Information Desk disturbing a crab that scuttled away from him.

The search of the second desk turned up a couple of dollars, some gin, which he didn't drink, and some tea. While he searched Elizabeth stood and occasionally looked around in a disinterested manner. Guess it was his job to dig through desks and filing cabinets to find things.

When he was done, they walked up a flight of steps to the first upper level passing damaged displays of goods and up to a wall with "Fontaine's" on it in huge letters. Either side of the wall was another flight of steps going up. No choice but to the set on the right as the left side was blocked by a massive wall of ice. Was getting a bad feeling about all the ice.

The path at the top of the stairs curved to the right some and there it was. A fence made of heavy metal bars blocking the entrance to the store. On the fence was a sign stating "Closed By Order Of The Council" with a big fancy "R" in the center of it.

He gave a quick glance to the left and saw that there was a large desk with some packages and a cart with a broken stove on it. On the wall behind the desk was the word "Returns" in large letters. He walked up to the fence and looked it over. No way to climb it and no way he could fit through the bars.

Beyond the fence was a window looking out into the ocean and an elevator. Floor was damaged just the other side of the fence and he could hear water flowing, a lot of water.

"Look up there."

He glanced back at Elizabeth to see that she was pointing up at something above the fence, a lighting sconce. The sconce was a Art Deco style female figure holding a big round light in front of her. Wrapped around the light was a chain with oversized links and another chain of three links hanging below. The bottom link was open and looked like you could catch it with a grappling hook without much of a problem.

Too bad he didn't see any grappling hooks lying about.

Elizabeth was undeterred. "Let's have another look around. Perhaps we'll be able to find something to get us up and over."

He went to take a closer look at the Returns desk while Elizabeth walked around the other side. Hoped she didn't find a splicer over there. He found some money on the desk and some potato chips which he ate. There were two sets of doors behind the counter, but before he could check them out, Elizabeth called to him.

"Over here. A Sky Hook."

Puzzled, he walked over to where she was standing. Hanging upside down from a giant icicle was a frozen body with some kind of contraption in his hand. He pulled it from the dead body and looked at it. It was made of an old Fontaine vacuum cleaner case, but had a handle with a trigger on the underside and strap that wrapped around the for-arm. At the front were hooks that spun around, but there were only two hook and should have been three..

"Sky-hook? You mean the "Air-grabbers"? Kids use's 'em to ride around up on the Pneumo Lines."

""Air-grabbers"? Huh. Constants and variables." She seemed to thinking out loud rather than talking to him.

"Constants and what-?"

"Never mind." Elizabeth told him dismissively.

"This one isn't going to do us any good." He told her holding up the Air-grabber to show her the missing hook.

She took a closer look and frowned a moment as she thought. "I should be able to repair it with the proper tools and parts."

"Repair it? You didn't know what it was."

"I've used something similar to it before and know how it works." She told him a little archly.

"Right." He told her dryly. "Let's see if we can find another way to get around that fence." He pocketed the Air-grabber as went back to the Return's desk. Even broken it still made for a good club. Looked behind the Return's desk all he found was an empty purse and a few pieces of clothing.

He tried the doors, but they didn't open. Locked. Should be someway of opening 'em up nearby. He turned around to see Elizabeth looking at a red button hidden under the counter.

"I think that might help Mr. DeWitt."

He went over and pressed the button and there was a click and the doors opened to reveal a half lit room. Just to the left of the door was a desk with several filing cabinets and at the far end was a cargo lift with a large shipping crate on it. Most of the room was filled with products sold at the store. Shirts, shoes, belts, dresses, a pair of televisions, three Fontaine-Vacs, a set of golf clubs, toys and three clothes washers.

No rope or anything that could be used to fix the Air-grabber. On the desk was an Audio Diary.

* * *

 _William Arbuckle: Profit On The Side_

 _March the 14th, 1958_

 _Found Arnold and Jill down in the shop yesterday working after hours. It's hard enough to keep those two working on the clock so see'n 'em workin' off the clock was more than a bit off. After they left I poked around and found what they were working on. Air-grabbers. They were makin' Air-grabbers and sellin' them to the kids. Can't have that now, can we? Of course, if they give me a cut, I suppose I could overlook it._

* * *

"I think we found a way to repair the Air-grabber." Elizabeth observed with a slight smirk.

"Maybe." He admitted grudgingly. Where was the workshop mentioned in the Audio Diary? Only way out was the cargo lift. A search of the desk didn't turn up anything, nor was there anything useful in all the returned goods so they walked to the lift.

The lift wasn't the most fanciest he'd ever seen. Most of it was wood and the "walls" were just wire gates about waist high. After Elizabeth had stepped on and he pulled the lever to send the lift down. With a screech and a small jolt the lift started sinking. Slowly.

Very Slowly.

Elizabeth looked at him a moment as she were trying to figure something out. "So Mr. DeWitt, how exactly did you arrange to "talk" to Suchong for 15 hours?"

"After Anna… vanished, started calling in favors. Man in may line of work meets all kinds of people."

Elizabeth's left eyebrow went up a little. "Friends in high places?"

"Wouldn't call 'em friends, but they gave me a few leads."

"And that's how you found out about Suchong?"

"Best lead I had. Problem was talking to him."

Elizabeth leaned back against the crate and folded her arms. "I can't imagine Suchong giving you an appointment."

"His kind don't make appointments with people like me unless they want something. I arranged for his private sphere to have a "mechanical problem" and got him as he walked home from Artemis Suites."

"Friends in low places then?"

"Just have to know who to pay off."

"Kidnaping Suchong is why they wanted you to think the girl was dead. You were getting to close to something. I'm a little surprised they didn't kill you."

"Huh. After what I did to those goons last year, probably figured it was easier to make me think Anna was dead."

He'd been hired to investigate thefts of parts from Minerva's Den and tracked it down to their shipping department. Somebody got tipped off and when he went to check out one of the warehouses, he had three workers attempt to "discourage" his investigation with clubs. He hadn't killed them, but one had a broken leg and one of the others a busted arm and four cracked ribs.

Finally the cargo lift came to stop in a room 100 by about 80 feet with corridors branching off from it. A room with glass windows up a short flight of stairs was ahead and to the left, looked like an office. Along the walls were shipping crates, boxes and along the ceiling were several Pneumo Lines that all went down one of the corridors. This place was a lot plainer than Fontaine's Station was. Almost no decorations, just some functional signs and walls painted a medium greenish color. But it was in relatively good shape compared to what they had seen above. No ice, which was a good thing in his book. Some lights were out and there were a couple puddles of water, but that was all. The lack of light didn't make the place seem threatening, instead it seemed calm.

That made him watch everything even more closely.

They tried the office first. Sign by the door said "Shipping Office #5". There were three desks, some chairs, over a dozen filing cabinets, office equipment, a wall mounted safe and a doorway to another office. He walked over to the safe and found it was already open and totally empty. He looked through one of the desks finding a wallet with a few dollars and small gold necklace. Elizabeth meanwhile had been looking through the papers on one of the other desks.

"These receipts show that nearly half a million dollars' worth of the goods where shipped here just a few days before this place was turned into a prison. Why would they do that?"

"Ryan got what he wanted, Fontaine's Plasmid business." He told her as he walked to inner office.

The inner office only had one desk, but it was a little bigger and fancier than the ones in the outer office. The nameplate on the desk said "Caddice Washington" and she was still seated at her desk, a gunshot wound in the side of her head. Carefully stacked in one corner were empty food containers. In the other corner, a mattress, pillow and blanket neatly made up into a bed. He walked around the desk and saw a pistol on the floor and a note on the desk.

 _So hungry._ _No food left. Getting weak. Can't turn on the Pneumo to get more. Not going let the splicers get me. This is the only way. I'm sorry Maggie. Forgive me._

The pistol had four rounds left in it and a search of the office didn't turn up anything of value.

"So which way?" Elizabeth asked as they walked back out into the main storage area.

He chose the closest corridor which was to the left of the lift. First thing they found were two time clocks and racks with dozens of time cards on them. A little further down were two changing rooms, one for men, the other for woman. He ignored them for the time being and walked to the set of doors at the end of the corridor. Maybe a way out.

When they got to the doors he could see that someone had sealed up the doors. No way out here. A quick search of the changing rooms only turned up a pack of cigarettes and an Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Walter Wagner: Getting out_

 _September 27th 1958_

 _Fontaine's gone and I'm not sad about it. Problem is that Ryan is a worse boss than even Frankie was. I came down here so I could get an even shake. All that ever happens is that I get screwed by some fat cat. No good sticking around here. Time to get out, see if I can get a job someplace that Ryan hasn't taken over yet._

* * *

Returning to the storage area they walked down the wide corridor just the other side of the office. A short way down were a set of doors which led to a room with eight worn tables, a bunch of cheap looking chairs and Circus of Values besides the door. On the walls where posters advertising Fontaine products such as a Plasmid to hypnotize Big Daddies, a security bot that ran on Pneumo Lines, toasters, along with inspirational messages for employees like "The Manger Knows What Is Best For You" and "The Slacker Is Not Your Friend". Some of the products advertised wouldn't be out for months yet.

Nothing worth looking at here other that the Circus machine. He went over to it, but everything was sold out.

"Nothing you want to buy?" Elizabeth asked.

"It's empty. Let's see where those Pneumo Lines go."

As they went down the corridor it got darker. Only half the lights were working. Looked like they had been turned off rather than broken. They went around a bend and found a set of doors. A sign beside the door said "Jet Postal Substation FD 515".

When the doors opened they could see a network of regular sized Pneumo Lines and some larger ones running along the ceiling nearly twenty feet over their heads. Where the Pneumo Lines met the walls there was a door. Doors where a lot bigger than they should be though. There were bins, stocks of boxes, machinery, and a few tables. The station was quiet though and only half the lights were on. Only thing that was brightly lit was a long window on the right side of the room. Through the glass they could see four small machines hanging from Pneumo Lines. They looked like televisions with a small arm on each side, Pneumo Bots. But the bots didn't have any lights on them and their arms hung limply.

He looked at the broken Air-grabber and at the bots. The hooks were the same. "Think you could get some of the parts you need for the Air-grabber from one of those Pneumo Bots?"

"Yes, but with the power off those Pneumo Bots won't work. Once the power is back on, you can knock one down."

"Huh, got it all planned, don't you?."

"Enough to get the job done." She told him coldly.

As they looked around the station he wondered why this Elizabeth had a problem with him. They didn't find anything that looked like a fuse box or anything else that would help them get the power on. As he searched he noticed that anything that might contain food, medical supplies or anything else useful had already been picked clean.

They left the Jet Postal Substation and back to the storage area. There was still another large corridor to check out. It went down about 30 feet and then turned to the left. Many of the lights were out, but a short way down was a large archway that had bright light streaming from it. At the far end of the corridor was a wide set of double doors with "Fontaine's Repair Department #5" over the doors.

Elizabeth started walking down the corridor. "Looks like we found the repair shop."

"Tools won't be much good without the parts."

"I'm confident you'll be able to find everything I need."

"You seem certain of that."

"I have it on very good authority that you can accomplish a great many things when you're sober." There was bitterness in Elizabeth's voice, like he'd failed her somehow.

"Look, I'm here to find my daughter, not to listen to insults, got it?"

Elizabeth stopped a moment and gave him a none to friendly look before responding.

"I "got it"".

"Now that we understand each other."

They got the archway and looked down a corridor with two doors. The first door was down a short distance on the right and had a sign beside it saying "Utilities". The other door was 60 feet down and had a sign that said "Maintenance Supplies".

As they approached the first door they could hear the hum of pumps and other equipment. The door opened to reveal a brightly lit room. He didn't have time to notice anything more since about 15 feet into the room was a Security Turret starting up.

No time to back out. He started shooting, and got two hits before the turret opened fire. His Shield broke, but he kept firing and the turret exploded. He wasn't hurt to badly, but he didn't feel all that good either.

"Are you OK, Mr. DeWitt?" Elizabeth asked as she strutted past him into the room to examine the destroyed turret.

"Didn't think you cared."

"I don't. But your dying before I find the girl would make things difficult."

Now that he wasn't being shot at, he took a look around. The room was large and the right wall was mostly covered by two large pipes and a dozen or so smaller ones. In the middle of the right wall was a door and a sign that said "Pump Room #53". Check that out later. A Medical Kit or some bandages was the first order of business.

First thing one the left side of the room was a desk with several beat up filing cabinets behind it. The rest of the wall was taken up by panels of switches, gages and dials. Found a pack of crackers, some pistol ammunition and a bandage in the desk. As he moved to the filing cabinets Elizabeth started talking.

"It's a chair."

"A what?"

"This turret. It's just a chair with a motor, some electronics and a gun."

"Guess Ryan didn't want to spend the money for the good ones." He told her as he searched the cabinets finding a wallet, half a pack of cigarettes and a small Health Kit. Wasn't back to 100% yet, but was a lot better than he had been.

"Ryan ships half a million in goods down here, but doesn't want to spend the money to buy turrets?"

"Ryan shipped all of Fontaine's old products in here before turning it into a prison. Now everything in Rapture has "Ryan Industries" stamped on it."

"More profit for Ryan then."

"That's how the "Great Chain" pulls." He told her while walking to the doors for the pump room.

The room was large with two big pumps in the center of it. Both seemed to be at running at full speed. He wondered a moment what will happen when they stopped working and decided it would be a good idea not to be around to find out.

When he left the pump room he found Elizabeth looking over the electrical panels. "The power for the Jet Postal is that one, but it's already on." She said pointing to one of the many switches on the wall.

He went over to where she pointed. The switch was in the "On" position, so there must be something else. He turned the switch to "Off" and opened the panel. Just as he thought, someone had pulled the fuses. Easy enough to fix since they'd left the fuses behind.

As he started to put the fuses in place he realized Elizabeth was watching him work. "Someone didn't want the Jet Postal to work." She observed.

"Too bad for them." He said as replaced the panel and threw the switch. A faint buzzing sound came from the panel. "Now the power's on, let's see what we can find down here."

"Shouldn't we go back to the Jet Postal?"

"Let's take a look at that Maintenance Supplies and look over that workshop first."

Maintenance Supplies turned out to be a large closet filled with toilet paper, mop buckets, brooms and the like. There was a box labeled "Lost and Found" that had a wallet with a few dollars in it and a small gold chain.

All the lights in the corridors were back on now and it didn't take them long to walk to the Repair Department. Once inside they found four long work benches cluttered with hammers, wrenches, vices, screw drivers, metal parts and scraps of plastic and wood. Off to one side were a drill press and welding set. In the back of the room were a couple of doors one of which had a crude "Office" sign tacked on it.

Elizabeth walked over to one of the benches and picked up an unfinished Air-grabber.

"Good, not much work left on this one. I just need two hooks, a handle and a metal bracket."

"Two hooks?"

"If you go riding off on a Pneumo Line I need to be able to follow. I'm not going to be carried about like a sack of grain."

"Fair enough. So where do I get the handle and bracket?"

"You can find them in that Security Turret you destroyed earlier. I need to stay here and do some work on this Air-grabber."

He considered that she might try something while he was gone, but didn't see what. He left the repair shop and when back to the Utilities room and collected the parts from the destroyed turret, then walked to the Jet Postal.

When he arrived, he found several Pneumo Bots riding around the room on the lines. They would move a few feet one way, then turn around and go back again. Looked like they didn't know what they were supposed to do. Only one way to get one of them down, so he carefully aimed his pistol and fired.

The bot made an electronic scream it came off the line and crashed to floor. He started to take aim at another bot when one of the doors for the Pneumo Lines opened. A Pneumo Bot with a bright white light on it come out and the light started to play around the room. This Pneumo Bot was different from the others he had seen. It didn't have arms on it and there something hanging on the underside. Took a moment to realize it was the barrel of gun. He ducked behind bin, but not fast enough and the bot screeched in alarm as the light turned to red.

This thing was a lot faster than the other turrets he had seen. The light was fixed on the bin he was crouched behind so it couldn't see him. They he heard the bot move on the Pneumo Line and the light shifted position. The bot was using the lines to move around to where it could shoot him.

He quickly stood up and ran to get behind another bin and fired two shots at the bot both of which hit. The bot fired back almost destroying his Shield before he got to cover. He was lucky. The machine gun one the bot wasn't that powerful. He waited until His Shield recovered while the damaged bot moved around on the Pneumo Lines trying to line up a shot on him.

Just as his Shield was back to full, the bot got to where it could fire and he fired back. Two more shots from him and the bot exploded and it crashed to the floor in flames. He walked up to the bot to take a closer look and collect the hook from it. Ammunition for the bot's gun was a total loss. Looking at it he remembered where he had seen it before, one of the advertisements in the break room. But they weren't supposed to be out for months. Guess someone stuck an early version down here.

We walked back to the shop. Elizabeth glanced up when he came in then went back to her work.

"Did you get the parts?"

He didn't answer other than to put them on the work bench along with his Air-grabber.

"Good." was all she said and started working on the two Air-grabbers. It took a very short time for her to replace the hooks for his Air-grabber and only a few minutes to finish building her own. When she was done she spun the hooks on the end around and smiled a little. It was a little bit of a sad smile, like she was remembering something, but it was the first real smile he had seen from her.

She looked at him and the smile vanished as it had never been there. "I'm finished. Unless you know of a reason to stay down here, let's be going.

"Nothin' down here." He said and started for the lift. After a slow and uncomfortably quiet trip up they were back in Fontaine's Station looking at the sign "Closed By Order Of The Council" and the metal fence it hung on.

"Ladies first." He told Elizabeth.

"I don't need to use the Air-grabber." She told him and walked over to the far left side of the fence and carefully slipped through the gap between it and the wall. A space much too small for him to get through.

Humph. Guess it's time to see how this Air-grabber worked.

End Chapter Two


	3. Chapter 3

Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

Chapter Three

Booker looked up at the lighting sconce, the loop? hook?, that hung from it and back at the Air-grabber in his hand. He had seen one of them used once or twice, but hadn't used one himself. He pointed the grabber at the hook and felt a pull. Not a strong pull, just enough to notice it.

Guess pulling the trigger on the grabber and jumping would get him up to the hook. A moment and one loud "clang" later he was hanging from the lighting sconce. He tried to unhook himself, but nothing happened.

"Damn grabber's stuck..." He muttered to himself. Should have tested it before jumping. He looked around a moment and noticed that the hole in the floor they had seen before was a lot bigger than he had thought it had been. Much too big to just jump across and the water from the burst pipes was a massive torrent better than fifteen foot wide. On the other side of the hole, tantalizingly out of reach, was the elevator.

First things first, he needed to get the grabber unstuck. Then worry about getting over the hole in the floor.

While he tried to get the grabber unstuck he found himself looking at a large round opening in the right side of the wall, some kind of air duct with the cover torn off. Could see some pipes and the like though the hole, but not much more. What he didn't like was all ice about.

Then he heard a man's voice coming from opening. It sounded a little desperate and a lot unhinged. "I want the frosty one! GET ME THE FROSTY ONE!"

"Mr. DeWitt… someone's coming..."

He'd figured that out by himself.

A man pulled himself up into the opening from the other room. Or something that had once been a man. Now his skin was a light blue color, like it was frozen and large white crystals were growing out of his skin. The crystals growing on his head looked like hair and a beard giving him the look of an evil Santa Clause. He was a Frosty Splicer.

And here he was hanging from a hook and Elizabeth was unarmed. Easy targets if the splicer chose to attack.

The frosty had other things on his mind and quickly threw two ice shards into the water gushing from the broken pipes. The water instantly froze to form a bridge to the other side of hole in the floor. Then the splicer jumped down from the air vent and ran across the bridge while someone yelled after him.

"No! Come back! I want the frosty! Want it! Want it!"

Following the frosty was another other splicer wearing a wooden box on his head and carrying baseball bat. He got to close and the frosty turned around and threw more shards that hit the splicer and encased him in ice. The frosty then ran towards the elevator and jumped inside. Another splicer, without a box on his head and also armed with a baseball bat jumped through the air vent hole and ran after the frosty, but the elevator doors slammed shut in his face.

With a sound of metal grinding on metal the grabber unjammed. "Good." He realized that being up here wasn't such a bad thing. If he swung it right, he could jump off the hook and land on one of the splicers below. The splicer with the box on his head shattered the ice around him and took an unsteady step.

A perfect target.

He jumped from the hook and slammed in to the stunned splicer, killing him instantly. The other splicer pounding on the elevator door heard the commotion and started to turn. Letting that splicer get close enough to hit him that bat at him didn't seem like a good idea so he fired twice with his pistol, putting the splicer down.

He walked across the ice bridge with Elizabeth walking up behind him and heading towards through the huge window on the right side of the room. He had fought, no, killed those two splicers like it was nothing.

"Mr. DeWitt, look." He turned to see Elizabeth pointing out the window. "Housewares... That's where Cohen said we'd find the girl."

Humph. Knowing where Anna was didn't do much good if they couldn't get there. He walked behind sales counter that stood to the left of the elevator to see if there was anything useful.

Elizabeth started walking towards the elevator. "The store ran trams between the three buildings. We'll need to avail ourselves of that."

He picked up a few dollars from the counter and did a quick searched of the two dead splicers. "Assuming it still works." The left side one splicer's face had been badly burned and looked like it was half melted. His left was missing as well his ear on that side. The other splicer had a dirty bandage wrapped around his head, had lost all his hair and was missing a lot of teeth with the ones he still had looking about ready to fall out. He was also missing his right eye and his skin looked off color, more like a corpse than a living person.

She folded her arms and watched as he searched. "Optimism, Mr. DeWitt. It helps in situations like this."

He didn't respond and walked over to the elevator and slammed his hand against the button to open the doors. Once they both were both inside the elevator he hit the button to start it on its way. When he turned back Elizabeth was nearly glaring at him.

"When did you come to Rapture?" She all but demanded.

"Huh. Don't really know."

"You don't know?" That didn't seem to be the answer she had expected.

"No. Five or so years ago, head injury, can't remember much of anything before that."

"You can't remember anything?"

"Just that I come from New York…" The world suddenly turned blurry for a few moments and he felt blood drip from his nose. Great time for another spell to hit. "Damn."

As he wiped the blood away Elizabeth told him. "You look a mess, Mr. DeWitt."

"Just keep your eyes open for splicers. They can do us a whole lot worse."

A moment later the elevator doors opened upon the first floor the Pavilion. The Pavilion was a multistory area hundreds of feet across that served as a major hub for traffic with elevators and entrances to different parts of the store. This was also where station for the tram was located and the bright neon sight saying "To The Tram" was easy to see on the other side of the room.

Getting there would be a problem though.

Between them and the tram was a female splicer standing at the top of a short flight of stairs. The splicer was busy scattering something on the floor and talking. "There little birdies. Eat it up. It's good for you, you know!"

The splicer hadn't noticed him or Elizabeth yet, but that wouldn't last long. He crouched down and moved over to the right and behind a counter that sold perfume.

On both side of the landing where the splicer stood was another short flight of stairs going to upper levels. The upper level to the right had an elevator and stairs to the floor above. To the left, a door to the Prêt-à-Porter and another elevator. All around the Pavilion were faceless white mannequins dressed in fine men's and woman's clothes.

Near the doors to the Prêt-à-Porter was another splicer. This one was male and had an wooden box on his head. They must be really desperate to use boxes to protect themselves, or was there another reason?

Elizabeth had taken cover behind the counter to the left of the elevator. Wouldn't have to worry about her at least.

If he kept quiet, maybe he could get the drop on the bird lady. Still crouched, he snuck up behind her. Now that he was closer he could see she her dress was blood stained and torn. She seemed to have some kind of mask on the left side of her face. Was she wearing a pearl necklace? When he was close enough he stood up, and hit her in the back of the head with the Air-grabber.

The splicer was dead before she realized what happened and fell to the floor. It was mercy he supposed, but a damn small one. The other splicer hadn't seen what happened. Maybe he could get that one too. Then came an scream from over on the right and behind him. "I'll show you 'not good enough!"

A third splicer had been off on the right side of the Pavilion and was now charging at him. He fired once and hit. The splicer jumped aside at the last moment to avoid the second shot, but that allowed the third shot to hit him the head.

The last splicer came running at him, baseball bat held low to the ground. He was low on ammo, best to save the rounds he had. He ignited the Devil's Kiss Plasmid and threw a fire bomb into the splicers face. The bombs' explosion stopped the splicer's charge and he thrashed around as he burned, screaming in pain. A single blow from the grabber ended that pain.

He looked around a moment to make sure there were no other splicers about as Elizabeth walked up to where he was.

"Mr. DeWitt…"

"Well, there's the tram..." He said sadly.

The floor between the landing and the tram station was gone, destroyed somehow. He looked down and saw a tangle of pipes and what looked to be the remains of Christmas ornaments. He looked up to see some kind of huge display with more ornaments hanging from it. They broken ones below must have fallen from it. Water from the shot across the gap from the burst pipes just as it had in Fontaine's Station. If it could be frozen…

Elizabeth had the same idea. "That splicer had no problem freezing a path for himself before."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to do the same for us."

"I have no doubt you'll prove persuasive."

Mr. Frosty wasn't around at the moment, so he started searching for supplies. He didn't find whole lot, but found a few more pistol rounds, some EVE and felt a little better. Up on the left side near the entrance to the Prêt-à-Porter department was a Circus of Values. He got a small Health Kit and ammo. Nearby was a Gene Bank, but the only thing he could use, "Possession For Less" was too expensive for him right now. There were listing for upgrades for Bucking Bronco, Shock Jockey and something called Charge. He'd lost track of the new Plasmids and this Charge must be one of them.

He took a closer look across the gap to the Tram Station. There was a grand piano in front of the archway leading to the station's interior. Next to the piano was a mannequin dressed in a fancy suit. He'd been hearing a song playing since they had gotten to the Pavilion, "Stranger's in Paradise" if he remembered correctly. The music seemed to be coming from over by the piano.

Might was well see if there was anything in the Prêt-à-Porter. He opened the doors and stepped into a display area with some mannequins, but not much else other than dead body, a little money and a whole lot of spent bullet casings. Looked like .45 caliber, the kind used in Tommy Guns. Walking around a large display in the center of the room they could see the entrance to the store. The store itself was on the other side of a wide gap that had been torn in the floor and a torrent of water flowed to the other side.

"Another burst pipe." Elizabeth noted unhappily.

"Store's sunk a few hundred beyond its specifications. More pressure means more burst pipes." He didn't like the busted pipes or the flooding and leaks they'd seen. Fontaine's was pushed to it structural limits and it wouldn't take much to push it over them. If that happened, this place would become an underwater graveyard in a matter of seconds.

They left the Prêt-à-Porter and returned to the Pavilion to see if there was to get to the upper floors. Both the elevators here were out of order. The doors of the one closest to Prêt-à-Porter were damaged and couldn't be opened and the elevator car itself looked stuck halfway between this floor and the one below. The other elevator seemed stuck on a floor above and the bottom of the shaft held a dead body, an upside down open safe, a small gold bar and light blue container. It was one of those fancy Gear he'd heard about. Looked like someone dropped the safe down the elevator shaft to break it open.

As he finished up searching Elizabeth called out. "Mr. DeWitt, look."

She was standing in front of a large cartoon figure holding a sign. The figure was a man dressed in an oversized blue coat and hat with a long white beard that looked like icicles. Somebody's idea of Jack Frost. The sign said "Visit RAPTURE ON ICE on the top floor."

"An ice rink." She said in a pleased voice.

"Be good a place as any to look for our new friend."

"Says it's on the top floor."

"So we go up."

He quickly finished searching and walked to the doors and pulled on them. "Agh, damn thing's locked."

"Let me see that." Elizabeth told him and bent down to look at the lock. "Ugh, have matters progressed so little... I could turn this with a rake pick." She worked at the door a moment and the lock dropped to the floor and she pushed the doors open. "Done."

"Where'd you learn that?"

"Oh, it's something I picked up a long time ago."

People just don't "pick up" lock picking. This Elizabeth must have had an interesting life before coming to Rapture. He walked down a short flight of stairs into a small room with a few small sales counters and across the room a set of doors with ice all about them. It took a moment to realize that the frozen figures by the doors were people, not mannequins.

"Our frozen friend leaves on hell of a trail."

"That man… How could he freeze this completely solid?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know, but I'll wager he was splicing something to do this."

There were two signs over the door. The larger one at the top said "Stairs to Floor 2". The smaller one below it said "Menswear" and "The Daily Bread".

He did a quick search, but only found a couple dollars and a small bottle of EVE next to one of the frozen corpses. He was near full, so he decided to save it for later. He pushed open the doors and heard the voice of a splicer.

"Come on, just let me in, ok?..." There was a group of splicers by the doors to The Daily Bread. Two men with clubs and two women with pistols.

"Fontaine said we're all equal down here now, all in the same boat... I just want a taste of some high-class food!" The splicer continued ranting as he pounded on the door.

Elizabeth ducked back. "Splicers! I don't think they see us. If you keep quiet, maybe you could get the drop on them. Even the odds."

Like he didn't figure that out for himself already. He started charging up a Devil's Kiss trap. The four splicers were in a fairly tight group by the doors to the restaurant. If he put the trap down in the center of the group, he could get all of 'em at once. It would take a few moments to build a full charge though.

When the trap was fully charged he threw it and it detonated as soon as it hit the floor. There was an explosion of flame and then there were no more splicers. Now that he didn't have to worry about being attacked, he looked around a moment. There were two large staircases on either side of the entrance to The Daily Bread that went up to a balcony over the doors. If he didn't want to take the stairs there was a lighting sconce on a support pillar he could use.

He went back to get the Small EVE bottle by the frozen corpse while Elizabeth looked over one of nearby displays of clothes. Then he walked to the doors of the restaurant to find a large lock on them. Elizabeth followed and looked at the lock a moment.

"This lock is better than the other one. I'm going to need a lock pick to open it."

"Don't think we're going to find too many lock picks just laying around." He told her as he searched the splicers he had killed. Some band aids, crackers, two rounds of pistol ammo and a doll of all things. The Circus of Values would still consider it as a form of payment though.

They started climbing the stairs on the right side when a splicer came charging down at them with a broken pipe in his hand. A female splicer with a pistol appeared on a landing halfway up the stairs, but he had to deal the other splicer first unless he wanted to get his head bashed in. He got off one quick shot before the splicer was swinging the pipe. He backed up quickly and the splicer missed, but only by a few inches.

With the splicer over extended, he hit him with the grabber causing the splicer to stumble. As he moved to attack again there was the whizz of a pistol bullet going past his ear. He'd thought that the splicer with the pistol wouldn't shoot to avoid hitting her friend. He'd been wrong and he wouldn't make the same mistake again.

He needed to finish off the splicer with the pipe as soon as he could. He lashed out with grabber and one of the hooks caught the splicer in the neck. He bore down and splicer's neck broke with a sharp snap. But he hadn't been fast enough. As the dead splicer fell a shot from the splicer hit him, shattering his Shield. Aiming down the sights of his pistol he fired and the female splicer's head vanished in an explosion of red.

He took a moment to reload and then search the bodies for anything of use. The landing they were on had a lot of men's shirts, hats, suits and the like, but little of use. Finishing the climb up the stairs they found themselves on another landing. To the left was the balcony over the doors The Daily Bread. Dressing rooms to the left blocked the view that direction though. To the right and ahead was a short flight of stairs going up to another level. Judging by all the ice, their "friend" had gone that way.

That would have to wait as he heard the familiar sound of a small motor. There was a security turret near. He edged around the dressing rooms and saw a light. The turret was in front of the dressing rooms. Further out of the dressing rooms was a red barrel and a trail of fuel leading back to towards the dressing rooms. On the right he could see some kind of low opening with lights inside. To get to the opening they would have to get past the turret.

Best to destroy the turret. Might be a better way than using up all his ammo though. He fired at the barrel and it exploded. The explosion ignited the trail of fuel and moment later the turret exploded as well.

Hadn't expected that to work quite that well. He'd expected the turret to be damaged, not destroyed.

Walking over to the dressing rooms he searched them and the turret. Nearly had enough money to buy the Possession Upgrade now. There was a fancy looking blue Gear container in the changing room behind the turret. The Gear it contained was called "Filthy Leach". The Gear would give some EVE when he killed someone with a Plasmid. That would be very useful to have. Just as he turned to leave he spotted a lock pick sitting on a table.

Huh, guess they *did* leave them lying around.

Then it was to that low opening. As he crouched down to enter he heard a voice talking softly. There was a splicer with his back to him and he was talking to a female mannequin like it was his girlfriend. How this splicer had missed all the fighting outside he had no clue.

He snuck up behind the splicer and grabbed him by the head with his right hand. With the left he used the grabber to slice the splicer's throat.

This was some kind of maintenance area that someone had turned into a home. There was a lantern for light, bedding, a fair amount of supplies, another lock pick and an Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Moses Lydecker: Left Behind_

 _December the 2nd, 1958_

 _Ryan, you bastard. Left me here to rot… Sure, I signed the contract: "Help turn Fontaine's into a prison." Ten days, big rush, everything slapdash. Right before the prisoners are brought in? One of your piece-of-shit turrets - bam! Both kneecaps. Now I'm likely a cripple, locked in a jail - surrounded by maniacs! Haven't even been paid, but I don't care. Just get me outta here!_

* * *

As the Audio Diary finished playing Elizabeth who had followed him in, crouched down. "Splicers!" She whispered urgently.

He looked out and there were two splicers outside, one with a pistol. One of them was muttering about being a child star or something. They hadn't seen them yet and were looking the other way. He lined up on one with the pistol and fired, hitting him in the head. As he fell the other turned and charged. Took two shots to put him down.

He searched the two bodies finding a necklace and a few dollars. More than enough for Possession Upgrade. He didn't like the idea and back tracking to the Gene Bank, but it was a lot better than using up all his EVE. They didn't encounter any more splicers on the way to the Gene Bank and while getting the upgrade used up most of his money, it was more than worth it.

They didn't see any more splicers on the walk back and in a few minutes they were standing in front of the doors to The Daily Bread again.

"Can you open it now?"

"Piece of cake." She actually seemed to enjoy picking locks. "There you go." She said and pushed open the doors.

There were a good number large booths on the left side and a dead body lying in a large pool of blood with a Tommy Gun nearby. As he picked up the gun he could hear the voices of at least two splicers. Whatever they were talking about didn't make much sense. Not much ammo in the Tommy Gun, but he could find or buy more. There was a small waiter's stand nearby and he found some ammo for his pistol inside it. Lots of bullet holes in the walls and furniture, must have been a pretty big fight here.

The restaurant curved over to the right where there was a spiral staircase going down and a destroyed security turret. To the right was a long counter with some seats in front of it. On the wall behind the counter were shelves with all kinds of alcohol on it. One of the bottles changed color. Red, yellow and blue. He walked up and looked at it. An Infusion. Hadn't seen many of them around lately.

He quickly downed it and boosted his Shield. "Feel better already."

The moment after he said that, Elizabeth turned away. Was it something he said?

He spent a few moments looking around finds some Tommy Gun ammo, money that had been tossed on the floor and another Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Sander Cohen: The Old Bear_

 _November the 5th, 1958_

 _It used to be such a thrill to hear Ryan speak. "Parasites" this and "the exaltation of man" that. Sure, it could all get a bit of a bore - but the old bear sure knew how to enunciate._

* * *

He'd heard from others about how inspiring Ryan could be in his speeches, but he'd never seen it. Then he'd never bought into that "Great Chain" nonsense either. What had he been thinking when he brought Anna to this place?

They started down the spiral stairs to the lower level. Part way down he looked over the banister and could see three splicers below. Two men and a woman. The two men were working on a security turret while the woman looked on.

He switched over to Possession and launched it at the turret. The possessed turret opened fired on one of the splicers working on it, killing him. The remaining two splicers attacked the turret and destroyed in just moments, but not before the other male splicer died. A single of pistol shot finished off the wounded female splicer.

After making sure there were no other splicers about, they finished going down the stairs. The lower level of The Daily Bread was full of booths and took a few minutes to search but it was worth the effort. He found a full bottle of EVE, a little money, a lock pick, more Tommy Gun ammo and another Gear tucked away behind a corner booth. This Gear was "Better Mousetrap". It made traps more powerful and they'd cost lest EVE to cast.

They back upstairs and as they got near the doors leading out of the Daily Bread when they heard a voice.

"I can be romantic! I just got her a new iron! Top of the line!"

Another damn splicer. Sounded like he were on the balcony above them. Elizabeth crouched down just inside the doors so he wouldn't have to worry about her. He stepped through the doors and looked up and considered the lighting sconce. Be a good way to get the drop on that splicer.

He used the grabber to jump up to the sconce and discovered there were two splicers up on the balcony, not just one and both were armed with Tommy Guns. They were looking over the clothes on one of the tables and hadn't seen him yet, but that wouldn't last long. He jumped off the sconce and smashed the closer of the two splicers, his dead body bouncing off the table.

The other splice turned, unlimbering the Tommy Gun. "You-you treat me like a worn-out shoe!"

He was faster than the splicer and opened fire with the Tommy Gun. The splicer was only able to get off a short burst before going down and hadn't been enough to get through his Shield. As he bent down to search the dead splicer, another voice rang out.

"Don't make me touch you!"

He looked up to see a female splicer with a pistol. Before he could move she fired, breaking his already damaged Shield. He was hurt and hurt bad. He opened up the Tommy Gun but his first burst wasn't enough to put her down.

"Mr. DeWitt, catch!"

Elizabeth was on the stairs to the left and threw a Med Kit to him.

"Thanks!" He called back. The splicer's next shot missed and a heavy burst from the Tommy Gum made sure she didn't fire again. As the splicer fell, another came running up armed with a baseball bat, screaming incoherently. To save ammo, he used the Air-grabber to kill the splicer.

As his Shield recovered and he started to search the bodies Elizabeth walked up.

"Where did you find that Med Kit? Thought I searched well enough."

"I have abilities of my own Mr. DeWitt. I will inform you of them only when I feel the need to." She told him coldly.

"Huh, your call."

They walked up the short flight stairs to the next level of the Men's Department. Mr. Frosty had been here as well and there was ice everywhere along with a frozen splicer who hadn't been fast enough to run away. And they discovered had another problem. The stairs up to the next level had been utterly destroyed.

He looked around a moment and spotted a lighting sconce. All they would have to do would be get up there with the grabbers and drop down. He took a minute to search for anything of use finding a few dollars, a cheap tin of rations and a lock pick. Then he jumped to the sconce and dismounted.

First thing he saw was a splicer with a Tommy Gun firing at someone else up a flight of stairs further in the store. He took cover behind a wall mounted statue and few moments later Elizabeth crouched down behind him. He peeked around the corner to see who the splicer was shooting at. It was a female splicer with a pistol and a man with another Tommy Gun. The woman fired several times and dropped the first splicer.

The female splicer hadn't seen him yet, and the other splicer turned around and started walking away. He carefully aimed at head of the splicer with the pistol and fired. As she fell he fired at the other splicer. The first shot didn't put him down, but the second did.

After he reloaded, he checked to make sure there were no other splicers about, but it was clear. To the left of the stairs was a large sales counter with a "Workmen's Ware" sign and another flight of stairs going up to the left of the counter. What caught his eye were all the Gear containers about. As they got closer to the counter he could see that almost all of them had been destroyed. Almost all. There was one still intact on the counter and when he picked it up he found it was called "Evil Eye". He would do increased damage while he aiming down the sights and he killed someone.

Made you wonder what kind of work those "workmen" did.

He'd seen a lot of advertisements for Gear months ago, but hadn't had reason to buy them. Gear were taken off the market before long because of lack of sales or so he'd heard. Guess people preferred Plasmids.

A quick search didn't turn up much other than a few dollars and some booze. They started up the stairs on the left side when they heard the sound of a motor running. Another damn turret. He crouched down and slowly went up the stairs with Elizabeth following behind him.

He got near the top of the stairs and raised up enough to look around and saw the turret. Just beyond the turret was a Securis Door with a sign over it. It said "Home Delivery" and below that it said "Elevator". That elevator was just what they needed to get to the top floor. First, he had to take care of the turret. The turret hadn't notice him yet, must be out of range. That gave him the chance to look around a little.

The floor in front of turret was wet, but not with water, it looked like fuel. He brought up the Devil's Kiss, lobed the bomb at the pool of fuel. The fuel ignited, the turret exploded and a moment later there was another, bigger explosion. Guess there had been a fuel barrel nearby. As the everything burned he stood up and started looking around.

To the right of the Securis door was the Haberdashery. He didn't want to get sidetracked into exploring every nook and cranny, but might be a good idea to take a look inside. They walked up a short flight of stairs in the main merchandise area. All along the walls were displays for shoes, shirts, suits and pants. Ahead was the sales counter and it looked like there were some changing rooms in back.

As they got closer to the counter he could hear another security turret. It was back by the changing rooms, so it could wait. He spent a couple of minutes searching, finding some money behind the counter and a diamond ring in a shoe box. Splicers hid things in the strangest places. As he searched Elizabeth kept an eye out for trouble.

Last thing was the security turret. He could see into two of the changing rooms and could see an Audio Diary and some supplies in one of them. How to get past the turret? No handy fuel spills to set on fire, be a waste of ammo to destroy it. Possession seemed the best bet.

With the turret possessed he quickly grabbed the diary, some money, Tommy Gun ammo and ignored the booze. Still had some time on the turret so he quickly checked the other changing room and discovered a Gear. Wasn't much time left on the possession, so he and Elizabeth headed back towards the front of the store. As they walked he listed to the Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Sander Cohen: Critics_

 _December the 23rd, 1958_

 _Of my first play, the Herald said: "A dead whale has washed up at the Shubert Theater, and stinks a little more with each passing night." The Tribune called my first opera as "having the effect of canceling out all of Mozart's classics in a single caterwaul." And now, critics take me to task for my humanitarian work. If I were not there to find a home for these orphans, would these bellyachers take my place? An artist once said, "All critics should be assassinated." I just might take him up on that._

* * *

This was the second diary he'd found from Cohen and the date on this was from just over a week ago. He clenched his fist. Cohen had brought Anna being down in this hellhole, personally. If he ever saw that lunatic again he'd kill him. He took a moment to unclench his fist. No use getting mad now, finding Anna was all that was important.

He glanced at Elizabeth who didn't seem to be surprised to hear the diary. She had known all along Cohen was involved with Anna disappearance. How much had she known? What was her game? He turned back to his latest acquisition. The Gear was called "Ticket Puncher" and increased his strike range with the Air-grabber by three times and did more damage. Downside was that it weakened his Shield. Going to have to be careful when he used it. As they got near to the stairs leading out of the store they heard voices.

"Splicers!" Elizabeth whispered as she took cover.

A splicer with a club and a paper mask made from an advertisement charged up the stairs screaming "You're heartless! Totally heartless!" Well, as good a time as any to try out the new Gear. He charged forward a short distance and slammed the grabber into the splicer's face. He staggered back and before he could recover, the grabber hit him again and killed him.

The new Gear certainly was effective, and then he saw two more splicers at the foot of the stairs, one with a Tommy Gun, the other with a pistol. He quickly launched Possession at the one with the Tommy Gun and he turned on the woman with the pistol.

"Killing you 's the only way! The only way!" She screamed as she fired. But she was cut down before she got a second shot off. Then a second Tommy Gun opened fire and killed the possessed splicer. There had been four of them before, now there was only one.

The splicer was ranting about how big a success he was. That made him easy to locate, off to the left near the top of the stairs. He waited a few moments for his Shield to recover then went down the stairs with his pistol out. Two shots later, the last splicer was dead.

Elizabeth looked at the dead splicer and asked. "What's happened to these people… They don't even seem sane."

"Nothing beats your first splice. From there, it's all downhill. The frozen frosties, the jockeys who will hand you a thousand volts as soon as look at you."

"You sound sympathetic."

"They wouldn't be the first dumb sons a' bitches who went looking for answers at the bottom of a bottle. But once you see the hunger in their eyes at the sight of a Little Sister and all her ADAM...well... then they cut a less sympathetic figure."

"And that's a problem you've never had, Mr. DeWitt?"

"ADAM? No, never had a problem with it." Thinking about a moment, that was odd. Plasmids were supposed to wear off after awhile unless you got more ADAM. He'd gotten Possession and Devil's Kiss months ago and hadn't used any ADAM since. Was a good thing since he hadn't much money.

A search of the bodies turned up a few dollar bills or something the machines down here would take for money, some coffee which helped his EVE level and some bandages. Nothing more here so they headed to the Securis Door and door opened automatically to let them pass.

The small display room beyond was half covered by ice and included a frozen splicer. Mr. Frosty seemed to freeze anyone he came across, even if they were trying to run away. There was a poster on the wall advertising "Old Man Winter", a Plasmid that could freeze things. All the ice around the poster almost seemed like a frame for it.

"If Mr. Frosty doesn't want to help us, maybe we can find some of this Old Man Winter." He glanced over at Elizabeth and she nodded her head but didn't say anything.

Nothing here to search here, so it was through the next Securis door and finally they walked out onto second floor of the Pavilion. There was a huge open area off to the right with a railing around it. If he went to the railing and looked down he knew he would see the Tram Station they were trying to get to. In the center of the open area was the large display with the oversized Christmas ornaments he had seen from below. Around the display were a few pneumo lines.

To the left was another display for men's clothes behind a sales counter. Beyond that was the elevator that should be able to take them up to the top floor and Rapture On Ice. He did a quick search of the counter finding some money, tea and a doll. They it was up a short flight of stairs to the upper landing where the elevators were. When they got closer to the first elevator he noticed sparks shooting out from the control panel.

"Short-circuited. Probably be able to pop it open with a-"

"- a jolt of Shock Jockey." Elizabeth interjected.

"You familiar with Shock Jockey?"

"More than you could know." There was a story there, but he was sure she wouldn't tell him what it was.

"Let's look around. Maybe there's a store ain't been ransacked by splicers yet."

Past the disabled elevator was the "Home Delivery" counter, a couple of pneumo's and some packages with a couple of beat up clothes washers. In back of the counter was a pneumo line and some deactivated bots hanging from it. Didn't find much when he searched the area.

Other side of the counter was the other elevator, but the control panel was totally dead. Even a shot of Shock Jockey wouldn't help. Not getting up to the next floor that way. He turned around and looked the area over and saw how to get up to the next floor, they could ride the pneumo lines. Should have seen that before.

He didn't feel ready to take a ride on the lines quite yet and given all the frozen bodies they had seen, he wanted more firepower before going to meet Mr. Frosty. He wouldn't be able to find Anna if he was a frozen corpse. Furthest from the door they came in was another door with "Ladieswear" over it. Might be something useful in there. Near the doors were a couple sales counters and search turned up some food, money and pop. His EVE was a little low, but he had nearly all the ammo he could carry. The doors opened to a short flight of stairs going down in to a smaller room that had some mannequins modeling the latest woman's fashions. There was some mist and water here, but no ice. Guess Mr. Frosty hadn't been down here recently.

He pushed open the next set of doors and he and Elizabeth stepped into the Ladieswear Department of Fontaine's.

Ladiesware was a huge cavernous room and a little misty. There were lights on, but not many and they gave the place an eerie look. Straight ahead were two flights of stairs going up that flanked a huge advertisement of a fancy looking woman and a message saying "Stand Above The Crowd". At the top of the stairs to the left on the second was the main checkout and a large window that looked out the ocean. The stairs on the right went up to a third level and a balcony that was over the sign. There were some lighting sconces here which could be handy. On the bottom level where they stood and on the far right was a jewelry store, best to start there.

The doors to Jeweler were already open and there were probably splicers in there already. He crouched and slipped into the store with the Tommy Gun at ready. The main showroom was off to the right and there was a counter on the left with a cash register.

Then they heard a voice. "I Gotta get my act together… Gotta get my act together."

"There, splicers" Elizabeth whispered.

A splicer with a Tommy Gun on his back walked from behind the counter over towards the showroom side of the store and hadn't seen them. He snuck up behind the splicer and used the grabber to slice his throat. As the body fell he heard a scream and a splicer armed with a club came charging at him. He put a bust into the splicer from the Tommy Gun, but it only staggered him. A second, longer burst, put him down.

As he reloaded he looked at the two dead bodies. It had been easy, much too easy to kill them. He had been some fights while in Rapture, but he hadn't killed anyone. How many people had he killed since he came to Fontaine's? Two dozen? More? He couldn't even remember. What had he done on the surface that he could kill so easily?

Worry about that later, finding Anna was what was important at the moment. A quick search of store turned up some money, a small bottle of EVE and a little food. He left the EVE for later. To one side of the counter was another smaller display area with a couple of mannequins but he found only a bottle of pop in one of the bags scattered about. In the far left corner of the store were a set of locked doors. Through the doors he could see an Audio Diary and an expensive looking necklace sitting on a desk. Didn't look like the splicers had been able to loot the place yet.

"You want to take a look at this?" He asked Elizabeth.

"Looks easy enough." She told him and in just moment the lock dropped to the floor and she pushed the doors open. He walked in with the Tommy Gun at ready but the office was empty. There was a room off to the right that looked like it was for storage as there where some crates and mannequins inside. He went to the desk and picked up the necklace and the diary.

* * *

 _Moses Lydecker: Message in a Bottle_

 _December the 5th, 1958_

 _I keep dropping Audio Diaries in the pneumo tube like a message in a goddamn bottle. Hoping one'll get through and someone'll save me... If you get this, send help. I'm hole up in the shoe storeroom. The code's 0-9-2-8._

* * *

"Guess we should go and visit the Shoe Store." He mused as he started to search the rest of the office.

"Any particular reason?" He glanced at Elizabeth. She was standing with her arms crossed and a vaguely unhappy expression.

He picked up a ring and a lock pick on the right side of the office as he answered. "Not right to leave a sane man down here with all these splicers."

"And how does that help us find the girl."

"This Lydecker fella might have some supplies or information we could use."

She considered what he said as he searched the remaining part of the office finding another ring and more money. He had over 250 dollars now and had a feeling he would need every penny of it.

"I guess we should go visit Shoes then." She admitted finally.

"Shouldn't take long." He told her as he walked towards the doors leading out of the office and back out into the store.

End Chapter Three


	4. Chapter 4

Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

Chapter 4

The first thing saw after walking through the doors of the back office and back out into the jewelry store was an Infusion sitting in the display area directly ahead. The bright shifting colors made it hard to miss and for damn sure it hadn't been there before.

A trap.

He drew his pistol and looked around carefully. The female mannequin standing nearest the Infusion didn't look right. Then the "mannequin" moved a little, not much, but enough he could see it. The mannequin was a splicer and there were probably a few more about. Looks like they expected him to walk up to the Infusion and then they would attack.

He made sure the Evil Eye Gear was active and lined up the sights on the splicers head. One shot and she went down. The barrel of the pistol glowing red from the effect of the Gear. He almost felt sorry for the dead splicer, almost. As she fell there were screams from the other side of the store. Two more female splicers came charging out from hiding. He quickly fired at the closer and staggered her, a second shot put her down.

While he had been dealing with the second splicer the third one, another woman armed with a pistol shot and hit him breaking his Shield. Not much got through the Shield, but it still hurt. With the enhanced damage from the Gear it only took one shot to the head to kill her.

He quickly reloaded and started searching the bodies. No money, but he found some tea and more pistol ammunition. With the last dead splicer he checked he noticed that the mask on the left side of her face it had fallen off. He wished it hadn't. Her nose and the skin around her left eye had been burned off. In her madness she must have worn the mask to make herself look more normal.

He drank the Infusion and put it towards his Shield, and then he and Elizabeth walked to the doors to leave only to find them locked. Guess the splicers hadn't wanted them to be able to escape easily.

"Could use some help here."

"Seems easy enough." Elizabeth told him eyeing the lock. In just a moment she pushed the door open. "Done." She said cheerfully and suddenly ducked back. "More splicers." She whispered.

He could hear a woman ranting. "Check the stove. Six times a night. Twelve on Fridays. Only way to be sure!"

The splicer was walking towards the stairs going up to the upper level and the Shoe Department. He could hear other splicers about as well. Be good to give them a distraction. He launched Possession at the splicer on the stairs and she immediately drew her weapon screaming "You make me feel SICK!" before firing of towards the doors leading out of Ladieswear.

A male splicer with a club came charging down the stairs at the possessed splicer. She fired twice killing him as a Tommy Gun opened fire from the left. The female splicer was hit several times, but didn't fall. Another shot from her pistol silenced the return fire. A fourth splicer armed with a club came running down the far stairway heading for the possessed woman. She was out of ammo and desperately trying to reload. The splicer with the club jumped and hit the woman, killing her.

With the female splicer dead, the remaining spicier charged at him yelling "Everyone wants a piece of me!"

He switched over to Ticket Puncher and quickly killed the splicer. A search of the bodies turned up some money, ammunition, a little food and some pop. He was in good shape at the moment, but he knew that could change real fast if this Shield was broken.

He and Elizabeth headed upstairs to the Shoe Department. As he neared the doors he heard a security turret. There was a stairway going down off to the left and looking down that way he could see the turret sweeping right to left and back again, endlessly searching for someone to shoot. Didn't look to be a threat, so he was going to leave it alone for the time being. Going back to Shoes he pushed open the doors and found a spicier with a Tommy Gun, but a pistol shot to the head ended him before he could fire.

From over on the right a voice called out. "Glenda? I'm home sweetheart! Glenda, Honey!?"

How many of these damn splicers were around here? He brought up Devil's Kiss and crouched down behind a display.

"Sweetheart… I got a surprise for you." The splicer yelled. The splicer came out from behind a display and he threw the Devil's Kiss bomb. As he was throwing the splicer spotted him and opened fire. "After all I done!" He ranted, just before the bomb exploded. The splicer thrashed around a few moments before a burst from the Tommy Gun ended him.

The burst the splicer had gotten off hadn't gotten through his Shield, but it wouldn't have taken much more. With all the splicers dead, he took a moment to look around the area. Directly ahead was a counter with a cash register and there were two large semicircular display areas on right side of the store and s smaller one on the left side. Through a large window on the right side they could see the Housewares building.

It seemed like they were no closer to getting to it than when they first got there.

This store had been heavily looted and there wasn't much to find, but he did find a small bottle of EVE, some money and a lock pick next to a corpse. Something odd he noticed was that there were no woman's shoes, only men's. Many of the shoes being black and white wingtips. He never liked wingtips. Give him a good solid boot any day.

To the left of the sales counter was a door with a number lock beside it. Looks like they finally found where Lydecker was hold up. Looking through the glass doors he could see a long room with shelves on the walls, a red barrel of fuel, a Gear and in the left back corner another set of doors, likely to an office. There was a bright white light coming from behind the shelves on the left, another damn a turret.

Ignoring the bloody handprint by the lock, he punched in the combination. The moment the doors opened they could hear the sound of the motor. The turret was on the other side of the shelves so hopefully have wouldn't have to deal with it.

He looked through a couple of boxes on the shelves and somebody walked through the back office doors. For a moment he thought it was Lydecker, but he didn't think Lydecker would be wearing a clown mask made out of a poster.

"I'm sorry!" the splicer yelled and pulled out his Tommy Gun. Before the splicer could fire he was hit with Possession. The possessed splicer turned and opened fire on the turret. The two traded fire for several moments and then the splicer fell dead. A dead splicer and damaged turret for the cost of a little EVE. Seemed like a good bargain. He spent a few moments searching the rest of the boxes as he waited for the turret to go into standby mode and would be slower to react.

When he was ready he stepped around the corner and opened up his Tommy Gun. The turret got a few rounds off before it blew up. His Shield took the hits well enough though. Turning away from the destroyed turret he went into the back office with Elizabeth following behind. Lying in a huge pool of blood on the floor with a pistol near his hand was the man they'd come looking for, Moses Lydecker.

"Damn." He muttered. Looks like the guy might have killed himself, but couldn't be sure. He started looking through the place. There was a large Medical Kit which he didn't need, money, Tommy Gun ammo and an Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Moses Lydecker: Insufficient Postage_

 _December the 31st, 1958_

 _Heartless - that's what this town is... All my audio diaries begging for rescue came back, unread, marked, "Return to Sender. Insufficient postage._

* * *

He knew exactly how he felt.

When he was done with the office he searched the store room and the dead splicer. More money, a thermos of coffee, ammunition and last but not least, the Gear. It was called "Quick Handed" and it reduced reload time. Could be useful. He and Elizabeth left the storeroom and went back out into front part of the store. As they neared the doors they heard voices.

A woman said "Gonorrhea, that's what you'll get. And there's no cure but the madhouse." While a man's voice ranted about trying to get a job with Sander Cohen. One lunatic talking about another lunatic.

He crouched down and pulled out his pistol. After making sure Evil Eye was active he pushed open the doors and looked around. The female splicer was walking towards the steps going down towards Jewelry while a male splicer was leaning over the railing on the balcony talking to himself about making a "comeback". He only carried a club and was less a threat than the other one. He targeted the female splicer and a single shot to the head was all it took.

The other splicer turned saying "Hello? You from the "Stars and Screen" magazine?"

Took two shots to put him down. He stood and heard yells from more splicers. How many damn splicers were down here?

Another female splicer with a pistol charged up the stairs, but a lucky headshot put her down before she could fire. Suddenly he was hit from the right side by Tommy Gun fire. His Shield held, but just barely. He quickly lobbed a Devil's Kiss bomb in the direction of the splicer and retreated into the store.

A moment later a splicer with a box on this head and a club in his hand screaming "I deserve better!" ran through the doors. He only got a single shot off before the splicer was on him and shattered his already weakened Shield with single hit.

That HURT! It took the last two rounds in his pistol to put the splicer down.

Other splicers would certainly be coming through the doors so he charged up a Devil's Kiss trap and put it right in the doorway. EVE was getting low. He switched to his Tommy Gun and withdrew behind the display shelves on the left side of the store as Elizabeth hid further back. Then he heard the sound of the trap going off and the screams of two splicers. Two of them were killed judging by the EVE he recovered because of the Filthy Leech Gear. Helped some, but he was still low.

"I can't find anything!" Elizabeth called out from someplace near the sale counter. 'Least she was trying to help.

He waited until his Shield reformed then looked around the corner of the display to see two more splicers outside the doors. A female one looked at one of the corpses at the door and proclaimed "Ah! Bled him dry, didn't you?! Well, you won't dine on me!"

The splicers stayed outside the doors and didn't look like they were trying to get in yet. They were more cautious than the others had been. The other splicer at the doors had a Tommy Gun and saw him, but reacted slowly. He hit the splicer with a good burst, but he didn't go down. The female splicer fired, but missed, the bullet slamming into the display only a foot from his head. As he ducked back behind the counter the other splicer fired, the bullets passing through the spot he had been and instant earlier.

"C'mon. What you runnin' away for?" The splicer with the Tommy Gun called out. From the sound of his voice, he was walking into the store.

Rather than retreating further into the store, he crouched down and worked his way towards the door keeping a display between him and the splicer. He got to the corner of the display and saw that the female splicer had walked a short way into the store. He switched to Ticket Puncher and attacked the female splicer before she could shoot.

The blow from the grabber knocked her back and the second killed her. The remaining splicer hearing the commotion yelling "Heard that! Clear as a bell…" but didn't turn around. Left side of the splicer's head was badly burned and was missing an ear so he couldn't tell which direction sounds came from. Wouldn't last long though, so he aimed at the back of the splicer's head through the sights of the Tommy Gun and fired.

He got back to cover and waited a few moments, but there no more splicers came. Good. He reloaded and searched the four dead splicers in the store. A little money, ammo and a bottle of pop. Nothing to heal him up. There was the Medical Kit back in Lydecker's office. Seemed like a good time to use it.

After getting healed up he and Elizabeth walked out of the store. The turret was still up and running. Why didn't the turrets fire on the splicers?

They stayed away the turret and went down to the main floor before heading up the staircase on the left side of the room and to the Checkout Counter. He had to be careful to stay out of sight of the turret but got back behind the counter and could search in peace. There he found a lock pick and some tea, but that was all. No more reason to stay around here.

They left Ladieswear and returned to the 2nd floor of the Pavilion without running into any more splicers. When he got there he spent a moment studying the pneomo lines. He didn't want to be too exposed as they rode up to the next floor. Choosing the inner line he got a running jump and hooked onto it. As he rode it up he heard Elizabeth following behind him.

As they cleared the third floor he was able get the lay of the land. On the left side was "Fontaine Plasmids" in the center was a large Securis door flanked by two massive statues of "Jack Frost". Over the door was a sign saying "Jack Frost's Village". There was ice, both real and fake all over the place. He didn't have a chance to see more because two splicers came out from near the doors to the Plasmid store.

One was a woman with a pistol and the other a man with a Tommy Gun. They hadn't seen him yet, so best make use of it. He jumped off the pneumo line and smashed into the female splicer killing her instantly. Before the other splicer could react, he was cut down by a point blank burst of Tommy Gun fire.

The slight feeling of relief he felt vanished as he heard yells from over towards the door to Jack Frost's Village. Two more splicers had just come through the door. Several more bursts from the Tommy Gun ended them.

He spent a few moments searching the dead and finished looking over the place as he did so. At the far right of the Pavilion was a Gene Bank and a Circus of Values. Those would come in very handy, he was low on EVE and there might be an upgrade for his Possession or Devil's Kiss. He bought a two small bottles of EVE and headed for the Gene Bank. As he walked away from the Circus machine it loudly called out "Hey, I got a family to feed!"

He glared a moment at the machine and wondered if shooting it would make it shut up. Probably not so he turned back to the Gene Bank.

No upgrades for the Plasmids he already had, but there were some for Old Man Winter.

There was a sales counter near the vending machines that had some food, beer and Tommy Gun ammo behind it. As they walked back towards the doors to Jack Frost's Village Elizabeth decided to drop a hint.

"Looks like the Plasmid department is back that way. I'm sure we'd find something useful there."

He'd already decided to go take a look at it, but nice to know it was a good idea. As they got closer he noticed a large poster advertising Shock Jockey. "New for 1959!" "Innovation that matters". Near the bottom of the poster was the logo for Ryan Industries. Guess Ryan thought that if you stole something, it's yours. Most thieves think that way, unless they're the ones being stolen from of course.

He tried the door, but found it didn't open. Another lock on it. "Little help here?"

"That little old lock?" After a moment of work the lock dropped to the ground. This was the second time she'd picked a lock without bothering to use a lock pick. He'd known a few locksmiths and didn't think any of them could have picked the lock that fast even with tools. She said she had learned to pick locks a long time ago, did she learn as a child?

Huh. That's what seemed familiar to him. When Elizabeth was picking a lock, she was a lot like Anna when she was taking something apart to see how it worked. One Anna's favorite things to disassemble were locks, and while it wasn't a real problem, he just wished she was a little better at putting them back together. He'd had to buy new ones three times to replace the ones she'd worked on.

Elizabeth pushed open the door with an upbeat "Done."

Less than half the lights were on in the store making and it dark and gloomy. The lack of light made the huge well-lit sign saying "Fontaine Plasmids" directly ahead of them really stand out. He took a few steps towards the railing inf front of them and saw they were on a balcony fifteen or twenty feet above another floor below them. Beneath the sign were a set of doorways leading into the main sales area, which was the only place that brightly lit. The only way to get down to the lower floor was to take a flight of stairs on the left up to where there was another flight were going down.

Even in the darkness they could see all sorts of posters and advertising for plasmids. Devil's Kiss, Old Man Winter, and Shock Jockey. At of the foot of the stairs to the left was a display with more than a dozen empty Shock Jockey bottles scattered all over it. He hoped there was still a full bottle left someplace in here.

The stairs went to a large upper level that had a large plasmids kiosk with a glowing sign advertising Devil's Kiss. To the right of the glowing sign was another balcony that overlooked the floor below and the other side of that was stairway heading down.

Typical Rapture. Makein' things harder just make a buck off of you.

Half way up the stairs they heard music start to play.

"Buuucking Bronco, The law of gravity, Defied!"

Damn it! Now he had that stupid jingle running through his head all day again.

Then he heard a female splicer talking and the jingle was forgotten.

"Ford Dundee. Ford Dundee. Ford Dundee. Ford Dundee! Good… Now he'll call…"

She was close, on balcony to the right. They got to the top of the stairs and looked around a small display. The splicer was standing near the railing of the balcony looking down at the main floor below. As he crept up behind her he wondered about the huge hole in the railing the splicer was standing next to. Looked as if something big had smashed through it. There were also drag marks on the floor leading right to the hole from the direction of the kiosk.

The splicer didn't turn around and he quickly killed her with the Air-grabber. After searching the corpse and finding a couple dollars, he looked over the floor below. There were a couple splicers on the floor below, but they were just were wandering around and not a threat. For the moment at any rate.

Other side of the Devil's Kiss sign was the smaller sales kiosk. Might be something of use in it. There were shelves and a display counter with empty plasmid bottles all around. Some were Shock Jockey, but most were for Bucking Bronco with a few Devil's Kiss tossed in for good measure. There was some food, coffee and a small pile of coins. Had near 400 dollars now.

They started towards the stairway when another female splicer walking up the stairs spotted them. "Loiterers!" The splicer screamed as she drew her pistol.

He hit her with Possession and she turned around and started firing while screaming "I'm going to skin you alive!"

She got two shots off before return fire killed her. But it gave him a chance to set a Devil's Kiss trap on the stairs. He knew there were at least two more splicers down there and they were bound to come charging up the stairs. He was proven right when a few moments later the trap went off killing the two splicers.

He slowly started down the stairs expecting another splicer to come running up it, but none did. Maybe it had been only the three of them, but he wasn't going to bet on it. They got to the bottom of the stairs and short distance in front of them were the doors to the main sales area. He hoped there was a full bottle of Shock Jockey in there or this whole trip had been for naught.

He advanced a little further and saw a large grey metal box to the right. And there was the head of a splicer peeking over the top of it. The splicer stood and started firing, but a single pistol shot in the head ended him.

Looking around there were no other splicers, so he searched the body finding a few dollars. As he finished with the corpse he glanced at the "metal box" which, turned out to be a locked safe. The floor all around the safe was broken, like the safe had been dropped from some height. He looked up at the broken railing on the balcony above them. Looked like the splicers pushed the safe off the balcony to try and open it. Hadn't worked.

"Got a lock over here." He called to Elizabeth who was looking at an advertisement for Old Man Winter.

"Come on, give me a challenge." She told him as she looked over the safe. A moment later it was open. "There." She sounded so cheerful about it.

Inside was an Infusion which he used for his Shield. "Just what the doctor ordered." As he said it, Elizabeth's face went hard again. What was with her? Seemed like she would warm up a little, then turn cold as ice. Not that he'd been planning on asking her for a date.

Beside the Infusion was an Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Herschel Weiss: False Advertising_

 _November the 10th, 1958_

 _Oh, you're not gonna out-lawyer me on this one, Ryan. You knowingly promoted Old Man Winter with the implication it produced ice - not dry ice! The ice sculpture we commissioned for this year's gala at the Kashmir stands where we left it, a month later, all 2500 pounds of it... And who's still footing the room rental? Oh, not you, you son of a bitch..._

* * *

Huh, typical of them like Ryan.

Looking around there was nothing else here other than two fuel barrels, one of which was leaking. They walked into the main sales area and to the display advertising Shock Jockey. Sitting front and center on the display was a single bottle full bottle of Shock Jockey.

After drinking the Shock Jockey, he spent a moment getting a feel for his new Plasmid. It used a lot of EVE so he was going to have to use it sparingly. Looking around he found plenty of empty plasmid bottles, but little else, even the cash register on the back counter was empty. But they had what they needed.

"Why did Ryan lock up all of Fontaine's followers in a department store?" Elizabeth asked as they left main sales area and walked to the stairs leading up.

"He needed somewhere to put Fontaine's button men and anybody else that caused problems for him. Why not shut down the competition in the bargain?"

"But I thought Andrew Ryan was all about free markets and open competition."

"All those ideas lose their luster for them like Ryan when somebody else is getting rich and you're running in the red. Anyway, Fontaine's dead."

Searching the dead splicers he'd missed before he found some bandages, money and a little EVE. That put him in good shape for meeting Mr. Frosty. They left Plasmids and stepped out onto the Promenade. As the doors closed behind them they heard a loud screeching sound. A splicer, no two splicers were riding up the pneumo lines from the floor below. The pair were already swinging around the giant decoration and would be above them in moments. He didn't like the idea of one of the splicer jumping off the line and landing on him, so he jumped up the pneumo line himself.

He glanced back to see Elizabeth taking cover behind one of the sales counters besides the doors to Fontaine Plasmids. So long as the splicers were concentrated on him, she would be safe. One of the splicers, who had a box on his head, jumped off the line and started shooting at him with a Tommy Gun. He quickly reversed directions and headed back towards the splicer. He took a few hits, but his Shield took them more easily now. The second splicer jumped off the line landing a short distance from the first one and pulled out a club.

The second splicer was closer so he jumped off the pneumo line and smashed into the splicer, killing him instantly. Seemed like a good time to try out the Shock Jockey and he fired a bolt at the splicer with the Tommy Gun, shocking him in immobility. While the splicer was unable to move he put a good burst from the Tommy Gun into his head. The burst blew the box off the splicer's head and killed him.

He checked to make sure there were no other splicers about and Elizabeth came out from where she had been hiding. He knew all the fighting scared her, but she hid it well. And her ability to take cover quickly was strange. Not the kind of thing you pick up reading a book. He topped off his Tommy Gun ammo from the dead splicers and found a little more money and a bottle of pop.

With all the soda he was drinking he hoped his teeth didn't rot out.

They walked over to the Gene Bank and chose the "Shock Chain Aid". When he hit one splicer with Shock Jockey, it could chain on to another if they were close enough. It cost 100 dollars, but it would be a good way to get the most out of the EVE. He didn't choose the "Bounce" upgrade, he didn't plan on missing. After that he bought a small vial of EVE to top it off.

Now it was time to go into Jack Frost's Village. The Securis door opened and they found themselves in the lobby and right ahead of them was a Souvenirs kiosk. There was ice every were, the floors, walls icicles hung from the ceiling and mounds of ice and snow filled the corners. In a few places spears of ice jutted out of the floor pointing towards the ceiling.

"It's freezing in here." Elizabeth said, shivering.

"Something tells me all that cold isn't just comin' from the ice rink." If he'd had a jacket he would have offered it to Elizabeth, but doubted she would have accepted it.

He looked through the window into the kiosk and saw a frozen corpse holding a Gear in its outstretched arms, like he was trying to give it to someone. There was also a safe and an Audio Diary. No way to get into the kiosk from the front, door was in the back. When they walked around to the back they found sparks shooting from the door control. He shot a bolt of Shock Jockey at the control and the door opened right up.

There was a steep flight of steps they had to be careful going down into the kiosk due to all the ice. The first thing he did was pick up the Gear. It was called "High and Mighty" and jumping up to a pneumo line or freight hook would give a chance for a "Winter Shield" and increased damage. Be nice to know what a Winter Shield was. Something that boosted his Shield? Guess he would have to find out the hard way.

Next was the Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Ray Lardner: A Gift from Fontaine_

 _September the 9th, 1958_

 _Frank Fontaine called me in the other day. Me! Ray Lardner! Says trouble's comin' an' he's passing out "special" Plasmids to all his best guys. *Shivers* I mean, it's an honor but, man... I started getting these shingles all over. Skin's discolored ... like when a guy's about to lose a limb, you know? An' I can't seem to pile on enough clothes. I hate to ask, but - is this happenin' to everybody?_

* * *

That didn't sound good. Seemed the side effects of Old Man Winter kicked in fast. He didn't like the idea of turning into a frosty, but it was the only way he was going to get to Anna. He tired the safe next. Locked. "Got a lock here." This was the last lock pick they had so he hoped it was worth it.

Elizabeth looked up from the Jack Frost souvenir she was studying. "On it." In moments the safe was open. Hoped for another Infusion, but there was only about 30 dollars and a bottle of absinthe which he made sure not to touch. He'd made the mistake of trying it once and regretted it.

He'd used a lot of EVE opening the door and wanted to be better stocked before seeing Mr. Frosty. They walked back to the Circus of Values and he stocked up.

A few minutes later he opened the Securis door to the next room and a new wave of cold hit them. Like the lobby, there was ice everywhere and not many of the lights were working. Right ahead of them was something that looked like a stage or base of a statue. He took a few steps into the room and realized that in front of the stage was a still standing frozen corpse. Unlike the others they had found this one had been impaled on a huge spike of ice. It looked like the ice had grown out of the floor to impale the splicer and freeze him at the same time

Off to the right was the Ice Skate rental. There were still some lights on in there so they started walking that direction. On the far side of the room was a large sign saying "Rapture on Ice" and below it "Sponsored by Old Man Winter" over a large set of doors. They got to the counter and found a few coins sitting on it, might be more on the floor around the other side. Looking around he spotted another frozen corpse impaled on a stalagmite made ice, but was holding something over his head in his right hand.

Looked like a rifle.

After walking through the doors to the rear of the rental shop he pulled the weapon from the dead man's hand. Not a rifle, a carbine. It looked like it a weapon used during World War II, but with the Art Deco styling he knew it had been made in Rapture. But what was it doing down here in Fontaine's? In fact, why were there so many weapons down here? Pistols, Tommy Guns and all the plasmids. There were Pneumo Lines that still connected back to Rapture, but he really didn't think you could fit something as big as a carbine through. And Ryan would be watching what was being sent down to the prison. A few weapons might be smuggled down, but in not the numbers he and Elizabeth had seen.

And the Circus of Values sold ammunition.

No one had to smuggle weapons, Ryan was letting the weapons through, maybe even sending them down here himself. But why? Propaganda? No, something more. The splicers were insane, violent, killing each other almost at random, but they weren't seeing that in Rapture much. There were reports about it, but there weren't pictures of dead splicers on the front page of the Rapture Tribune every day.

Dead splicers.

Could Ryan be setting up Fontaine's people to kill each other and keep his hands "clean" doing it? All these splicers and Anna was all alone. What if one of them…? A cold hand wrapped around his heart. He shoved his fear back. Hadn't let himself think about that before and wouldn't now. Couldn't think about it. She was all right, she HAD to be alright. Concentrate at the matter in hand, only way to find her, save her from what he'd done.

He checked the number of rounds left in the magazine of the carbine and found there were only four. Not going to be of much use until he found more ammunition. Searching the rest of the area he found a lock pick and a few more dollars, but that was all.

Time to go see Mr. Frosty.

As they approached the doors to Rapture on Ice it got even colder and they could a deep raspy voice through the door. "Nobody gets even a sip unless I say so! You got it? Anyone come nears that bottle without permission is a DEAD MAN!"

The doors opened onto an ice covered balcony that looked down on the ice rink. Off to either side of the balcony were ramps that sloped down the main floor. The room was roughly rectangular and stretched hundreds of feet down to huge set of ice frosted windows. Over the center of the rink was a bridge with a gigantic statue of Jack Frost on it. In front of the statue was a display case for Old Man Winter and in front of the case were a small group of splicers. One of them was Mr. Frosty.

The splicers hadn't noticed they had visitors yet and it didn't look Mr. Frosty was in the mood to talk. He had the drop on the splicers and was going to make the most of it. He cast Possession at Mr. Frosty who seemed to be a lot tougher than the rest of the splicers. The frosty should cause a lot of damage before he went down and it would make for a great distraction. The Possession hit the Frosty and… broke up, leaving the splicer un-possessed and alerting everyone.

Damn it! The frosties were immune to Possession! He fired of two quick shots from the pistol, but only got a single hit. The other splicers opened with Tommy Guns and carbines, but most of the rounds missed or struck the railing in front of them, but still his Shield took a couple good hits.

He still had Possession active and while it wouldn't work on Mr. Frosty, it would work on the other splicers. He cast at a splicer with Tommy Gun just to the left of the frosty just as he let loose an attack. Half a dozen shards of ice flew from the splicer's hand spreading out in a wide arc. If you dodged one, you might step into the path of another one. He didn't have to dodge this time though as the shards hit the railing just as the bullets had. When the hit they exploded, sending a wave of cold out.

Something caught his eye over the ice rink and he glanced up quickly between shots. There were pneumo lines hanging over the ice rink. Had no idea why they were there, but he didn't care. Mr. Frosty quickly killed the possessed splicer and turned back to face him. Other splicers with cubs were moving to attack. He needed to draw them away from Elizabeth.

He jumped to the pneumo line and his Shield froze. One the splicers with a Tommy Gun was firing at him, but the rounds just bounced off. Guess that was what the Winter Shield did. Very handy. A splicer on the left was running up the ramp to where Elizabeth was. He jumped off and landed on the splicer, killing him. He turned and saw the Frosty firing more ice shards at him. Didn't know how long this Winter Shield could take or how long it would last so he jumped back up to the pneumo lines.

He rode the line a short distance, then jumped off to hit and kill the second club wielding splicer. Three down, three to go. Mr. Frosty and the other splicer ran off the bridge towards him while the last one took pot shots at him from a distance with a carbine. Better end this quick. Switching to Devil's Kiss and starting to charge it up, he let off a heavy burst from the Tommy Gun into Mr. Frosty, but it didn't seem to slow him down much.

The frosty paused to throw another bunch of ice shards just as he cast the Devils' Kiss trap. The trap detonated right at Mr. Frosty's feet and another splicer got caught in the blast as a bonus. They both screamed and the fire consumed them. The splicer with the Tommy Gun died quickly, but the Frosty thrashed around for a moment until a heavy Tommy Gun burst put him down.

He hadn't been able to dodge the ice that Frost had launched at him, but the Winter Shield had protected him. The last splicer was eliminated a few moments later with a single pistol shot. Guess the High and Mighty Gear did give a boost to the damage he caused. No idea how, but it didn't matter.

With the last splicers dead, Elizabeth walked up to the locked display cabinet in front of giant Jack Frost statue. He followed and when they arrived she asked "Want me to open up that cabinet?"

"It's what we're here for."

"On it." And a moment later the lock was open and Elizabeth stood back.

He opened the doors and looked inside to see half a dozen bottles of Old Man Winter.

And they were all empty.

"Damn it. That son of a bitch drank every last bottle of Old Man Winter..."

"I think I can help." Elizabeth walked up to the cabinet and made like she was pulling something he couldn't see apart with her hands. Then with a strange sound, a hole opened in the air and he could see a full bottle of Old Man Winter in the case.

"Woah. What was that?" It looked like one of those windows he'd seen the city in the sky through.

"It's a, uh, new Plasmid. Lets me... lets me bring in things that might exist but... don't..."

"Not sure I understand. What's it called?" Might be able to find out something now.

"Tear." Elizabeth told him in a flat voice.

"Where'd you find that?"

"You don't expect a girl to share all her secrets, do you, Mr. DeWitt?"

She was lying, he was certain of it. What was she hiding? He reached out and picked up the plasmid and drank it. The cold coursed through him but then slowly faded away. Maybe his Devil's Kiss would keep him from turning into a Frosty. He took a moment to figure out how to use this new plasmid. With Old Man Winter he could freeze somebody and if something hit them hard enough, they'd shatter into a million pieces.

"That should do it."

He spent a couple minutes searching the ice rink. He found a little money and ammunition on either side of the rink, but under the rink he spotted several wooden carts like the type used in hauling something around like laundry. In one there was a medium bottle of EVE, a large amount of ammunition for his Carbine and a small Health Kit. After that they left the ice rink and walked out to where the ice skate rental was.

The moment the doors opened to the ice skate rental area they heard voices coming from behind the rental counter. More splicers. He crouched down and made his way across the other side of the room. No use getting in a fight if you don't have to. Then it was past the souvenirs kiosk and to the Securis door leading out. He pulled the lever to open it and as it spun he decided he had enough.

"All right. I know you're the client and all, but I've gone about far enough without a few answers."

Elizabeth seemed to have half expected his question and struck a pose with her left hand on her hip. "My purpose here is none of your concern. Consider me a means to an end."

"Then why do get the feeling like I'm being set up?"

"I told you, I'm in collections. An account is in arrears. My clients simply want to see matters set to right."

"I'm not buy'n it. You're after something else."

"If you don't like the arrangement, the bathysphere's back that way." She told him gesturing vaguely in the direction of the Sphere that they came in.

She had him. If he wanted to find Anna he couldn't walk away. He turned to face the Securis door and wondered who Elizabeth's clients were for this job. Assuming there actually were any clients. He didn't think it was a coincidence that Elizabeth looked enough like Anna that she could be her older sister. That meant she could be directly related to Anna. Was Elizabeth his wife's sister, Anna's aunt? That might explain her hostility, but it didn't explain what kind of grift she was trying to pull, or why. Was Elizabeth here to take Anna away from him?

Finally the Securis door opened.

He took a step and heard voices. More damn splicers. Four of them by the sound of it, over by the doors to Fontaine Plasmids.

Elizabeth crouched down behind him and whispered "Tell which tear you want to open."

That was when he noticed the tears. Pale wispy areas that made things shimmer when you looked through them. He looked at the closest one ahead and to the right. The tear resolved into a barrel with a small wooden crate next to it. On the crate was a carbine and there were others in the barrel. On the barrel was a painted sign saying "Take Arms". What else could she get from these tears? There was another tear was ahead of them almost to the railing. Inside that tear was what looked to be a man in some kind of strange ornate armor with a sword and a flag on his back. Took him a moment to realize it was like something he had seen in a book about Japan. A Samurai, that was it.

"That one." He told Elizabeth gesturing towards the Samurai.

With a flash of light and sound the tear opened and the warrior turned to attack the splicers. With screams of surprise and anger the splicers started shooting at the Samurai. Even after leaving the tear, the Samurai didn't look right. He looked like an old grainy black and white film. Was like he wasn't really here.

The warrior from the tear made for a great distraction, but he probably wouldn't last long against four splicers. One of the splicers had a Tommy Gun so he cast Possession on him. The Samurai started slashing at one of the two splicers with club while the other splicer started firing a carbine. The Possessed splicer started firing on his former friend with the club, killing him quickly. The splicer with the carbine was the biggest threat, but two pistol shots ended him. The combined efforts of the Samurai and possessed splicer quickly finished off the splicer with club. To his surprise the warrior started attacking the possessed splicer. The Samurai got a good hit in with his sword and the splicer returned the favor with the butt of the Tommy Gun which knocked the warrior back.

He had enough of this and shot the splicer in the head. When the splicer died, the Samurai ran towards him, then turned around as if to be on guard against an attacker. He damn near shot the warrior before he turned around. When the warrior moved he made a strange sound, like a machine, but smooth and not very loud. Was the Samurai even alive?

Guess it didn't matter at the moment.

He searched the dead splicers and found some ammunition and money, but not a lot of either. He looked to the other tear with the barrel and carbines. "Open it." He said.

A moment later the tear opened and Elizabeth told him "There."

"Thanks." He told her as he walked over. He stripped the ammunition from the carbines and happened to look at the small crate next to the barrel. It said "Property of Columbia Police Authority" on it. Wherever this Columbia was, he got the feeling that he wouldn't find it on any map. Best to get an upgrade for Old Man Winter while he had the chance. As he walked to the Gene Bank he noticed that the Samurai had vanished. No, it was back in the tear. Guess Elizabeth could only keep one open at a time.

Had the choice of either freezing for longer or freezing more enemies. Better go for longer, wouldn't want a bridge of ice melting as they were walking across it. After buying some more ammo for the carbine they rode the pneumo lines down to the second floor.

A shot of Shock Jockey opened the elevator door and they rode it down to the first floor. He was glad to get away from the cold. It reminded him of his nightmares. He only remembered a little from them, but it was enough. Blood, fire, dead bodies lying frozen in the snow. He had done something horrible and there were times when guilt threatened to consume him even if he didn't remember what he had done. But he couldn't, wouldn't, let that happen. Whatever he had done, whatever he was guilty of, Anna was innocent of it and she needed him.

The ride was short and ended abruptly when the elevator hit the safe at the bottom of the shaft. For a moment he was worried that they were stuck, but after a moment the elevator door opened. He jumped out and turned to help Elizabeth but she jumped out easily, clearly not requiring or wanting his help.

Now that the door was open he could get at the small gold bar and Gear by the safe. The Gear was "Magic Bullet". Said that it could do extra damage and there's a chance it wouldn't consume the bullet. Guess it did sound a lot like magic.

"You're not quite the man I had pictured Mr. DeWitt."

He walked over towards the gushing water that would become the bridge to the Tram.

"You thought I was hard-boiled P.I. out of some old Noir movie?"

"That is your reputation."

"People want a hard-boiled detective, I give them one. When the job's done, I go home to take care of my daughter."

"So getting drunk is part of your job?"

He cast Old Man Winter on the rushing water, the ice forming a bridge. "People talk a lot when they drink, say things they aren't supposed to. But I needed to stay sober, so I paid the bartenders to water down my drinks. 'Least I did …"

He hadn't crawled into a bottle when he'd been shown Anna was dead, but he'd wanted so much to do so. Some part of him still wanted to. It was only the vague feeling that he'd crawled into a bottle once before and only made things worse that stopped him. Even then, sometimes it was only a bottle that made him able to get through the day, or to sleep at night.

He glanced back at Elizabeth who had her arms crossed and an expression of skepticism on her face. "And I suppose you consider gambling a business expense as well." She asked sarcastically.

"Huh. Actually it is. Good way to get a line on someone is to talk to their bookie. Placing a few bets keeps helps 'em friendly." He didn't have to look at her to tell she didn't believe him. He took a step on to the ice bridge and stopped. His EVE level was low and he'd forgotten the Prêt-à-Porter. It had been cut off from the rest of the place for a while, might be something useful in it.

"So, how did you lose the girl?" Elizabeth asked after a few moments.

"It's complicated." He told her and didn't say anything more. Not now.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at his backtracking or maybe it was his response, but she didn't say anything more. He noticed the shimmer of a tear near one of the sales counters. A closer look revealed a ghost like Pneumo Tube. Best to leave it. Having Elizabeth open tears without a pressing need would strain things more than they already were.

They were walking by the Vending Machines and he recalled a rumor that hitting a Circus of Values with Possession would cause the machine to spit out some of the money it'd taken it. It hadn't been a good idea to try it up in the city, but he didn't think anyone would notice down here. He could use just about any advantage he could get and even a few dollars could mean the difference between buying a health kit or not.

He cast Possession on the Circus of Values and a small pile of money spilled out of it. He glanced at Elizabeth and noted that she didn't react, like it was a normal thing for her to to see. There was 20 bucks in the pile, which wasn't bad. He picked up the small vial of EVE that he'd left earlier and double checked his ammunition level. Nothing more he needed.

Stepping back from the vending machine and turned towards the Prêt-à-Porter.

End Chapter Four


	5. Chapter 5

Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

Chapter 5

He and Elizabeth were standing in front of the giant hole in the floor separating them from the Prêt-à-Porter and the torrent of water gushed from the broken pipe. He cast Old Man Winter and the water became ice.

They started walking over the newly formed bridge and heard voices from ahead of them. Guess the Prêt-à-Porter had splicers in it after all. They stopped a moment to listen. Sounded like three of them. They were off to the left someplace inside the store. Something else off to the right as well, a turret. He considered backing off, but if there was a turret around there was usually a reason.

He crouched down and continued forward. Some tears here as well. The closest one was a man in old fashioned clothes with a white bandage on his right hand and lower arm. It looked a lot like him. Some kind of joke of Elizabeth's? Didn't seem her style.

They were across the bridge now and he could get a better feel for the layout. The splicers were walking around muttering and ranting to themselves. The turret was on the right in a large round alcove with a couple of decorative pillars around it. Between the pillars and a large display stand, the turret couldn't see them.

The splicers first. Well, if the figure that looked like him could fight it would make for a good distraction. "That one." He told Elizabeth.

"Done."

The tear opened and there stood a copy of him. The clothes were different and he was a little older, but somehow, it was him. It didn't just look like it, it *was* him. Upon seeing the figure the splicers screamed and started shooting, but the figure didn't move. He just stood there with his arms crossed slowly looking around.

A splicer with a Tommy Gun came into view and fired a burst before being shot in the head. There were two other after that, one with a carbine, the other with a club. The one with the carbine also fell after one shot, the other with the club was running and hit the copy with his club causing it to vanish. It took two shots to finish him off.

In all he'd fired four times, but only used two rounds. Guess the Magic Bullet Gear worked as advertised. He stood and walked into the Prêt-à-Porter being careful to keep something between him and the turret. He looked to where the copy had stood but didn't see and blood or any kind of sign that someone had been there. He turned to Elizabeth, a horrible thought forming in his head.

"What was that?" he demanded. "Did I just get somebody killed?"

She was surprised by the question, even if she hid it well. "No. That decoy wasn't real. I suppose you could call it a shadow of the real thing. No one's been hurt." She pointed towards tear where the copy, no she called it a decoy, was again standing. "See." There was an unspoken accusation "And you wouldn't care if someone had been killed." in her eyes.

He ignored it. "And why does it look like me?"

"A decoy looking like you just happened to be the easiest to bring through, nothing more."

There was more to it than that, but she wasn't going to say what. This Elizabeth had far to many secrets for his liking and he hoped one of them didn't get either of them killed. He turned away and studied the alcove with the turret. If he got in the right spot he could see the back part of the turret, but keep a pillar between him and the sensor which was to the front. It would never see him.

He chose the carbine and three bursts into the machine before it exploded. Then he had Elizabeth open a nearby tear that contained a barrel of carbines like the one in front of Jack Frost's Village.

He wondered a moment how the splicers had gotten in here. Trapped when the floor was destroyed? There was a large hole in the wall to the left of the entrance with some wires and pipes in it. Maybe they came in through that. Didn't matter.

He replaced the carbine ammo he had used and walked further up into the store. Mixed in with the men's shirts, suites and woman's dresses and shoe boxes were a Gene Bank and an El Ammo Bandito. The ammo machine had a sign saying "Now Selling Weapons" on the front of it. Guess they hadn't gotten the "Power to the People" down here.

He went and checked it out but only saw ammunition and two weapon upgrades for a Radar Range. He had enough ammo for the moment and was just about to leave when he noticed the bottom listing for ammunition. It said "Explosive Crossbow Bolts". Didn't much like the sound of that. Possession of the ammo machine only netted eight dollars.

Well, can't all be winners.

There was nothing he wanted in the Gene Bank so they headed further into the store and found dressing rooms just beyond the vending machines. In the first they found a shotgun. It was an older style one, but serviceable enough in a fight. In the second room they found a corpse chained to the floor with "Down in the Briny!" written about it in red. Was fairly sure it was blood. There was also an Audio Diary.

* * *

 _Herschel Weiss: Ghost in the Machine_

 _December the 27th, 1958_

 _You thought the whole ice sculpture fiasco was just gonna bounce off you, didn't you, Ryan? Well, you ain't made of rubber. You got your Circus of Values selling your goods, security devices protecting your property... You think you own them, but you don't. I'm learning how to turn your creations against you. I promise you one thing: machine gun bullets don't bounce._

* * *

He looked at the body and wondered if it was Weiss. No way to tell. Be nice to find the guy. He was still sane and knew about the security systems.

The last changing room held an Infusion. He used it to reinforce his Shield some more. Wished he could use to boost his EVE, but more protection was better right now. Nothing else here so they started back towards the Tram Station. He'd wasted too much time already.

They hadn't gotten far before Elizabeth crouched down and whispered "There, splicers."

Sure enough, splicers had walked into the Prêt-à-Porter over the ice bridge. As usual they were talking loudly. Two, not three of them. There was a Samurai tear nearby, but the decoy was closer to the splicers. He told Elizabeth to open the tear and the splicers attacked the decoy. One splicer had a Tommy Gun and the other a carbine.

He fired once with the pistol and the splicer with a carbine went down. He shifted over to a splicer with a Tommy Gun and a box on his head. Was about to fire when the decoy vanished in an explosion.

Damnit! He'd hoped not to run into any of them down here.

His shot at the splicer with Tommy Gun, but only winged him. He quickly switched to the carbine and started firing. The splicer fired back and knocked his Shield down to almost nothing before he fell. As the splicer died, another splicer, this one with a long wooden box under his arm, ran out into view near the destroyed turret and threw something at him with an underhand toss.

He dodged out of the left as a can of tomato soup with a lit fuse sticking out of it flew past.

Elizabeth was behind him and off to the left so she would be safe. A moment later there was an explosion behind him which finished off his Shield and hurt him. Not bad, but bad enough that he needed to end this quick. If that splicer got a solid hit, it could kill him.

Bringing up Shock Jockey he cast it at the splicer as he switched back over to his pistol. With the splicer unable to move as electricity played over him, he easily put a round into the splicers head. As the splicer fell, he dropped the bomb he had been holding. A few seconds later the bomb went off throwing the splicer's dead body into the alcove alongside the destroyed turret.

He waited a moment to make sure there were no other splicers about and started to reload his weapons and take stock. Ammo was ok, but he was nearly out of EVE. As he did so, Elizabeth come out from behind cover and examined the last splicer he'd killed.

"What kind of splicer is that?" She asked clearly puzzled by the bomb throwing splicer.

"They call 'em Nitro's. Splicers crazy enough to think that throwing around bombs in an underwater city's a good idea." Bombs being tossed down here was worrying. With the store already pushed beyond its specifications, an explosion in the wrong place could lead to the whole building flooding.

A search of the three dead splicers netted 37 dollars and some ammunition for the Tommy Gun and carbine. The box the Nitro Splicer had been pulling the bombs out of was empty. Well, no great loss there.

He and Elizabeth left the Prêt-à-Porter and walked out into the first floor of the Pavilion. He stopped at the Circus of Values to buy a small medical kit and a large bottle of EVE. Restocked, they crossed the ice bridge to the Tram Station. He noticed an open suitcase sitting on the floor near the piano and looked inside. There was a small gold bar and a few dollars in it. How did someone leave a gold bar behind? They walked passed the piano and through the archway into the station itself.

Looking around he spotted a Gear and looked it over. It was called "Death Benefit" and it would heal him if he killed someone. Hell of a way to stay healthy. Didn't need it now so he stored it away.

A quick search of the Tram Station turned up some money and some tea. Some poor bastard looked like he had gotten trapped in here and his body was sitting on a bench along the right side. There was another corpse lying on the floor of the left side of the station. Both looked like they had been in a brutal fight. Did they kill each other? Probably. Desperate people do desperate things.

He knew exactly how it felt.

There was nothing left for them here, so he walked up the short flight of steps into the Tram Car. The car was looked a lot like bathysphere with a seahorse head stuck on top of it. There was a steel rail running through the crest on the head of the seahorse that the car ran on. The car had large windows at the front and back, with fancy a looking red bench along the back but he didn't plan on sitting. The floor was covered in red carpet with the name "Fontaine's" in gold stitched into it. He looked around a moment but didn't see and controls. Then a control column rose at the front of the car with a large lever on it. He pulled the lever and the car to the door closed and moved towards the large hatch ahead of them.

As they go close to the hatch it opened revealing a large airlock that quickly started to fill with water once they entered.

"You don't belong here." He told Elizabeth.

"What do you mean?"

"Not the Rapture type. Not even a little."

"If you mean I have no interest in joining the Andrew Ryan book club, you'd be right. Just another set of fanatics with a different set of books."

The airlock had finished filling and the outer door slid open and the car moved out into the ocean and towards Housewares.

"I said it was complicated." He said of a few moments of silence.

"What?"

"You asked how I lost Anna. I didn't have a choice, this… this wasn't supposed to happen."

A fish that seemed to be nothing more than mouth and teeth than anything with a glowing light hanging over its head swam by.

"There's always a choice Mr. DeWitt."

"Sometimes the choices you make don't mean a damn."

Neither spoke after that and soon the Housewares building loomed over them. The tram car entered the airlock and water was quickly drained from it.

He broke the silence. "Let's hope Cohen was on the level when he said this is where we'd find Anna."

"I can only imagine what they would do with a child in a place like this."

He pushed the thought from his mind. "Cohen's half-way to Splice Town. Probably thought putting a child in prison would be "high art". Or someone paid him." Couldn't imagine who or why someone would pay money to send Anna down here though.

"The sooner we find her, the better."

The tam car pulled into the station and the door opened.

Then he saw her. Purple and white dress, dark hair tied in a ponytail pulling herself up into a heating vent over six feet off the floor.

"ANNA!"

Then he saw the splicer running to the vent and his daughter. He jumped out of the tram car and ran towards the vent. He wasn't going to make it before the splicer and he couldn't chance using a gun or Plasmid. Might hit Anna. Just before the splicer got to the Anna, she pulled herself into the vent.

The splicer couldn't get her now. She was safe.

"C'mon outta there! Papa's got all sorts of plans for you! Now, you come out and take your medicine!" The splicer called out.

The bastard was trying to get Anna out of the vent! He switched to the Ticket Puncher Gear and slammed into the splicer before he could react. The hit broke the splicers neck.

"Anna! ANNA!" He stood in front of the heat vent. "Anna come out, please come out! It's daddy. Anna?" Where was she?

Elizabeth ran up to the vent and looked inside. "I can't see her."

Why didn't she come out? If he'd been just a minute earlier she would have been safe! Why had he wasted time!?

Elizabeth stepped back from the vent and looked inside a tool box sitting on the floor next to a teddy bear and pulled out a large rolled up piece of blue paper.

"What are you doing?"

"This is a schematic for the venting system. It shows more vents like this one in electronics, the bistro, returns, the book department and the appliance show floor."

"So?"

"If she's in there, there are only six vents she can come out of." She walked over to the vent and slammed it shut. "And now there are five."

Elizabeth walked away from the vent and continued to talk. "All these vents are connected to the central heating unit. If we close them off and turn the heat up, she'll be forced out through the central exhaust. It's the only exit."

"You want to burn her alive?" Was she insane?

"No. We just make it hot enough to flush her out."

"Not going to happen." He reached down and picked up the teddy bear and brushed him off. He could stand to be washed and his left eye was loose again. "Hello Theodore."

He held the bear up to show Elizabeth. "This is Anna's. We can use this to lure her out when the time comes." Anna rarely was without Theodore. Only reason she would have dropped it was to get away from that splicer.

"Theodore?" It was like she expected the bear to have a different name.

He started looking around the station for supplies. "Well, wasn't going to name him "Teddy."" The man the bear was named for didn't like being called Teddy.

Who was the man the bear was named for?

Someone he…knew? He tried to hold on to the memory, but it was like trying to grab smoke. He shook his head slightly to clear it. Was always like that with his memories of before.

The station here was smaller than the one in the main building. There was a waiting area ringed by benched for people to sit while they waited and along the walls further down were lined with phone booths. There was a light in a booth on the right side illuminating a corpse with a pistol in his hand and a photo of someone in his lap. A suicide. In the middle section of the station was the short wall with the heat vent Anna had escaped into. Walking around either side of the wall forced people to walk past large displays for various appliances such as clothes washers, dryers and refrigerators. Beyond the displays was a large door with a sign saying "Electronics" over it and smaller sign for the Atrium.

When they approached one of the displays on the left side a bright spotlight switched on bathing the display in a bright light. In the display a dead man was chained into a chair and his face shoved in a cereal bowel. He wondered a moment if it was one of Cohen's "masterpieces".

He spent as little time as he could searching for supplies, but it was worth it. He picked up more ammunition for his pistol and shotgun as well as 30 dollars. Nothing left to search so they headed through the door to Electronics.

They stepped out into a huge multi-level open area, but what immediately drew his attention were a group of three splicers near the middle of the room. One of them was talking.

"C'mon, love... Ol' Mickey just wants to give you a little squeeze. You don't want to disappoint your old uncle, now do ya?" He was holding a teddy bear out in front of him.

All the splicers were one side of a large round pillar all looking at the same spot, an open heating vent. The damn splicers were trying to lure Anna out. He stepped on his anger and thought for a moment. There was no way Anna was going to fall for something like that. He'd spent a lot of time making sure she knew to be careful of strangers. She would be far from that vent which meant he was free to kill the splicers and not have to worry about hurting her. One of the men was a Nitro, so it was best he took them out fast.

He charged up a Devil's Kiss trap and threw it right into the middle of the group. Throwing the trap alerted one of the splicers who looked his direction. "Who's this bum?" He asked before the trap went off kill all three in a single fiery explosion. Because of his Gear, he recovered all the EVE he's used making the trap.

And he'd need it. A Frosty came charging out from behind the pillar. He fired a quick bust from the Tommy Gun at the splicer, but it didn't even slow him down. The splicer unleashed an attack of ice shards, but he was able to dodge. In return he threw a Devil's Kiss bomb back at the Frosty, but overshot and it exploded behind the splicer. He fired another burst, but missed. This Frosty was better at dodging than the one in Jack Frost's Village.

He switched to the carbine as the splicer fired off more shards of ice. He wasn't fast enough and one hit. His Shield took the hit, but was damaged and it was COLD! It was so cold it was hard to move. He was a sitting duck for the Frosty if he attacked again.

Switching to Shock Jockey the fired it off before the splicer could attack again. With the Frosty unable to move he put two bursts from the carbine into his head. He checked around to make sure there weren't any other splicers about as he reloaded. After a couple moments the cold faded and he took a good look around.

Electronics was big, bigger than he first thought. The entrance they had just come through was on a small raised area that allowed them to see a large portion of the area, but not all of it. On the right side of the room was a huge window that looked out into the ocean. Looked like there had been some minor flooding there was a fair sized pond in front of the big window on the right. A sign had fallen into the water and he could see sparks. No fishing today. On the walls were huge screens showing different advertisement. At the center of the room was the pillar with the heating vent they needed to close.

No, not a pillar. There was a wrecked elevator car on the left side of it. He looked up and saw a wide shaft that went up four more stories. He hoped they didn't need to get up to one of those upper floors to close the other vents. To the left of the elevator pillar was a wall of televisions. They surprisingly were still working and advertisements would flash across the screens with each TV showing just a small part of a larger image making the whole wall a single big screen. Above the wall of TV's was the entrance to the Bistro. The stairway that led to the Bistro was in the far left side of the room not far from a Securis Door. Above the Securis Door were signs saying that led to the Appliances department and the Atrium.

Around the room were displays of electronics, mostly TV's, but some radios and other goods here and there. After possessing the Circus of Values near the entrance for 12 dollars they walked towards the elevator pillar and the vent. On a large screen opposite the vent he noticed someone had sloppily scrawled "Come out and play". Humph. Anna's handwriting was better. After he closed the vent he noticed toys on the floor near the vent. The splicers had been trying damn hard to lure Anna out. But why?

Whatever the reason, if he saw a splicer that tried to hurt Anna, they were dead.

He searched the dead bodies finding a little EVE, some money, a good amount of ammo, food and even a set of lock picks on the Frosty. After he finished searching he noticed an Audio Diary on the floor of the wrecked elevator.

* * *

 _Bert Unger: Oven of the Future_

 _November the 20th, 1958_

 _"Oven a' the future," huh? Yeah, the kid got hold of that damn Radar Range last night. Started tryin' it out on everything: apples, marshmallows, spoons! Had himself a fine time until our Pekingese stepped in the way. And for some reason, I'm the one in Dutch with the wife. Well, I locked the damn thing up. Oh, uh, so I don't forget the code, it's 3-9-5-8._

* * *

As he listened to the recording he searched the nearby dead body. Looks like the poor guy had been near, or may inside the lift when it crashed judging by the all blood. Then he took a moment to look over the pond by the window. He almost missed it but there was a golden bottle sitting on the window ledge next to a corpse. A full bottle of Bucking Bronco.

Problem was that it was on the other side of the electrified pond. But you couldn't be electrocuted by ice, right? He cast Old Man Winter and the water frozen right up making a miniature ice rink. He walked over and drank the Plasmid. Huh. It used half as much EVE as Old Man Winter or Shock Jockey. Should be a real help in a fight.

"You'll never amount to nothing!" A rough voice yelled.

He turned to see a frosty running directly at him from the other side of the newly created ice rink. Well, he had the Bucking Bronco ready, might as well test it. He cast and the frosty shot up about six foot into the air and hung there thrashing about. He fired off two short bursts from the Tommy Gun and the splicer crashed to the ground, dead.

Worked better than he thought it would.

He found a few dollars, some coffee and another set of lock picks on the dead Frosty. On a nearby bench was some Tommy Gun ammo. They walked towards the Bistro and passed near the door to Appliances and noticed a Gene Bank near it. The Gene Bank had two upgrades for Bucking Bronco. One that would chain the effect to other splicers and another that would cause them to move towards each other. Both sounded useful, but he didn't want to spend all his money, so he only got the "chain" upgrade. He noticed an upgrade for another Plasmid called Undertow. Something with water if he remembered correctly. He'd heard it advertised, but not that it was ever being sold.

"Where to next?" Elizabeth asked.

No a whole lot of choice. The Bistro was closest. They walked to the restaurant's entrance passing an El Ammo Bandito along the way. He was set well enough for ammo at the moment and didn't want to possess the vending machine yet. He'd get it on the way out.

The entered the Bistro and heard a female splicer talking. "Oh, sorry, honey! I've have been in the weeds this entire shift!"

They crouched down and looked around. To the left was a small counter with a cash register. Further along were a series of booths with rotted food on the tables and dead bodies propped up in the seats. The smell was near enough to make him gag. At the far end of the room running down the center was a buffet counter with even more rotten food on it. To the right were a short flight of steps going down. He assumed there were more booths down there, likely with more dead bodies. At the far end of the room was a flight of stairs going down. The splicer was standing at the second to last table on the left side.

"Oh, that's just terrific! Oh, the two of you. Oh, and a doctor, no less. Now, you be sure to bring me some pictures of you in the gown, now, y'hear?"

The splicer thought she was a waitress and that she was serving customers. Lost in her madness it was easy to sneak up behind her and end her madness forever.

As the body fell to the floor, there came a woman's scream from below. "I know you're into something!"

Damn, another splicer must have heard. He could already hear the splicer climbing up the stairs and the voices of two male splicers on the lower floor. Those two didn't seem to have been alerted though. Was sure that wouldn't last long.

He backed around to the opposite end of the buffet table from the stairs and crouched down while switching to his pistol and the Magic Bullet and Evil Eye Gear. The splicer came up the stairs holding a pistol in a two handed grip. She had some kind of mask over the left side of her face. He knew she was blind in that eye, but even blind he knew she would be unlikely to miss a shot at this range.

He shot first.

The bullet hit the splicer in the head and she dropped to the floor. He quickly moved to the top of the stairs with Bucking Bronco ready and when he saw the first splicer he cast it before the splicer could shoot. One shot and the splicer was dead. He took a few steps down the stairs and saw that the other splicer had been caught by the Plasmid as well. He got off a shot, but it didn't kill the splicer. The Plasmid wore off before he could fire again and splicer charged at him with a club. A single blow from the Air-grabber was enough to finish him off.

He quickly searched the two dead splicers as he walked down the stairs, would search the others on the way back up. The lower floor had a number of booths with another buffet bar. Beyond the booths to the left was the kitchen area where he could see stoves, refrigerators and a large freezer with glass doors. The area around the stairs was a little lower than the rest of the floor and filled with several inches of water. There was something in the freezer, but he'd look at it later. There were two tears in the room, but there was no reason to open either one. The vent that needed to be closed was on the far side of the dining area.

As they walked to the vent he looked at the two tears in the room. One near the vent was an open crate with Health Kits in it. The other tear was something he'd not seen before. It was a robot that looked like a person from the waist up, set on top of six foot tall pillar, and equipped with a Maxim style machine gun. The robot even had an old fashioned World War I style helmet on. Certainly didn't look like anything built in Rapture.

They went over to the vent and he shut it with a loud "clang" sound. Hmmm. He had an idea on how to get Anna to near to the end of the vent if wasn't. Then they walked over to the freezer he had noticed earlier checking the refrigerators for supplies, but not finding anything. In the freezer there was ice covered meat and strange looking device. It was shaped a little like a pistol, but was much larger and had a small dish shaped antenna on the front.

"What is that thing in there?" Elizabeth asked.

"It's a Radar Range. Never could figure out if the thing's designed to cook a turkey or a splicer." The advertisements for it called it the "Over Of The Future", but he'd heard a few stories about people's food exploding while it was being "cooked". Also heard a story or two about people who'd been exploded by one. Could be useful in a fight.

There was a combination lock on the freezer door. Wait, the Audio Diary they'd found in Electronics. What was the combination again? 3-9-5-8. He set the number into the lock and the freezer door opened. Picking up the Radar Range he found that it was lighter than he expected which was a good thing. He didn't want to carry so many weapons it slowed him down.

There was a blue colored round container sitting on shelf in the freezer, "ammunition" for the Radar Range. Really just some kinda battery. Just as he finished checking over his new weapon he heard yelling coming from the upper level. More damn splicers.

"Open it!" He told Elizabeth indication the tear with robot with the machine gun. Even if it didn't shoot, it might make for a good distraction.

"There you go."

"Thanks."

The splicers ran down the stairs and the robot swiveled around and opened fire. The first splicer was armed with a club and staggered as he was hit. The two splicers behind him, a woman with a pistol and a man with a Tommy Gun opened fire on the robot, guess he should call it a turret. He quickly cast Bucking Bronco, catching all three. He had the Radar Range in his hand so might as well try it out. The turret's fire was sloppy, but it was enough to kill the first splicer with the club.

He pulled the trigger and a reddish beam came for the Radar Range hitting the splicer with the pistol. She quickly turned red and after a few moments of holding down the trigger, she screamed and exploded. The third splicer was only a few feet away and was killed in the blast.

After seeing the Radar Range at work, he wasn't sure he wanted to use it.

Then a tin can with sparks trailing behind it hit the turret and blew it to hell.

He switched to his carbine as two more splicers came down the stairs.

"Nitro!" Elizabeth called out as she saw the first one.

The woman reached into the box for another bomb as the second splicer carrying a carbine opened fire. His Shield took the hit, but it couldn't take a lot more. He cast Bronco again and shot down both splicers while they hovered helpless in the air.

After making sure there were no more splicers about, he quickly searched the dead and headed upstairs to finish looking for supplies. As he walked up, he glanced back and thought about the water at the bottom of the stairs. He could have used Shock Jockey on any splicer who got to the bottom of the stairs. He needed to remember all his Plasmids in a fight, not just a couple of them. The search of the dead had netted about 30 more dollars, filled up his carbine ammo and near topping off his EVE.

They left the Bistro and walked back out into Electronics and found three more splicers were there.

He was able to sneak up behind one of them and kill him with the Air-grabber, but was spotted by one of the other ones. Fortunately the splicer was some distance away and armed with a shotgun. Two pistol shots took care of him. The last splicer charged at him with a club screaming "I warned you to stop following me!"

A single shot from the shotgun followed up by a hit from the Air-grabber was enough to end the splicer. Took only about a minute to search the bodies and then he went to the Gene Bank and purchased the "Attract" upgrade for Bucking Bronco since he had more money now. If he understood it right, if he hit a couple of splicers with Bronco they would move towards each other and make them an easier to hit with something like Devil's Kiss.

Then it was through the Securis door.

When the door, opened a baby carriage slowly started rolling across the corridor ahead of them. He looked around, but didn't see anyone or anything that could have pushed the carriage. The corridor he and Elizabeth found themselves in was about 40 foot long with another Securis Door at the other end. Along both sides of the corridor were displays for large home products such as dish washers, clothes driers and stoves.

He looked inside the baby carriage as they walked past. Inside was a doll that looked like a little girl. Doll looked normal enough, but the eyes suddenly opened and were a bright yellow color.

The next Securis Door opened out into a 70 or 80 foot wide corridor that curved away from them on both the right and left. There was a sign saying "Customer Service" directly ahead of them and he could see the vent they needed to close in the back of a service counter past a set of broken doors. In front of the counter was a Tear showing a box of Health Kits. Two splicers ran over from the left and crouched down behind a service counter.

The splicers, a man and a woman, looked to be trying to ambush him and Elizabeth. Best way to deal with that was to pretend the ambush was going to work and attack when they weren't expecting.

They stepped out into the corridor and looked both ways. To the right well over 100 feet down there was a barricade made up of furniture and large home appliances. Above the barricade was a large neon sign that said "Atrium" and over a set of door to the right was one that said "Bridal". Halfway down there was a Decoy Tear. To the left were the doors to the book department and the entrance to "Appliances". There was a metal gate across the corridor. They would have to find a way around it. Scattered haphazardly around were large appliances, mostly refrigerators and stoves.

They walked a few steps, Elizabeth didn't say anything, but she had seen the splicers and was ready to bolt for cover. Just another two steps and he cast Bucking Bronco at the two splicers. As he expected, they flew up from behind cover to hang helplessly. A few short bursts from the Tommy Gun was all it took.

There were a couple more splicers down by the barricade, but they hadn't reacted to gunfire. Maybe he wouldn't have to kill them. He walked past the service counter to the vent and noticed something on the floor in red paint. It said "Candy Free!" and had an arrow pointing to the right. Also on the floor was a trail of candy from the vent heading off in the same direction. Those two splicers had been trying to lure Anna out with candy.

He slammed the vent shut and did a quick search of the place finding a little food, money and an Audio Diary sitting on a desk.

* * *

 _Yi Suchong: Observation #17_

 _October the 14th, 1958_

 _"Observation #17 regarding unknown phenomena. Phenomena presents as odd shimmer, through which is observed … what? Men in strange hats. Women in large dresses. Buildings that float. Is phenomena window to other space? Other time? What was it Einstein said? "The only reason for time is so not everything happen at once."_

* * *

Must be talking about the tears. Funny that he was trying to figure them out. Weren't they created by his Tear Plasmid?

Behind the service counter was a safe. "Can you get this open?" He asked Elizabeth.

"Keep a lookout." She told him and bent down in front of the safe. A moment later there was a metallic "chunk" and the safe's door opened. "All yours."

Inside the safe was a small gold bar, a few dollars and three bottles of expensive looking whisky. Last thing he needed to be was drunk right now, but the money was welcome. Just wished it hadn't taken all of lock picks to open the safe.

They walked down towards the barricade making sure to keep out of sight of the male splicers by the barricade. As they got closer he could see the light from a turret and hear the splicers talking, well, yelling.

"More! It's not enough! That giant son of a bitch will walk right through that!"

"What if there's still a service door? Or...or a fire exit?!" Another male splicer asked fearfully.

"We'll seal it up! Lock him away forever!"

Well, they couldn't get through the barricade and the splicers seemed to have other things to worry about other than trying to catch Anna. Looked like the bridal department was locked up and they were out of lock picks. No use starting a fight here, so he turned around and started walking towards the other end of the corridor and the bookstore where the next vent they needed to close was.

"What exactly were they trying to keep out?" Elizabeth asked.

"You'll know it when you see it." And he hoped neither of them saw it, whatever it was.

As they got near the doors to the bookstore he looked down the corridor past the closed security gate. There was a set of doors from the bookstore that opened out into the corridor. If the doors weren't blocked inside the bookstore, they had a way to get around the gate.

He looked at the outside of the bookstore a moment. The place had a number of large windows and what looked to be a small balcony on the second floor. They opened the doors to the store and saw a female splicer walking up a long stairway ahead and to the left of the doors.

He quickly glanced to the right seeing only a couple book displays, several book shelves and a counter with cash registers at the far end the store near the other set of doors. Opposite the far doors was another long wide flight of stairs heading up to the second floor. To the left of the door he and Elizabeth had just come through there was a counter with a cash register on it. No sign of the vent, it was probably upstairs. There were books scattered all over the floor, must have come off the shelves.

The splicer hadn't noticed them, so he crouched down and followed her up the stairs. The splicer got to the top of the stairs and stood looking around for a moment. He stood up behind her and used the Air-grabber to slicer her throat. There was nothing of use on her body, so he carefully advanced, Elizabeth behind him. There was two ways they could go. Right took them to balcony they had seen from outside and he didn't find anything when he searched the area.

Ahead of them were more bookshelves and at the far end was the stairway heading down to the other set of doors. He could see a pair of tears, one for a crate of Health Kits and the other for a Samurai. Past the bookshelves on the right was some kind of open area and they could see the light from a turret coming from there. As he and Elizabeth got closer, they could hear a voice.

"Listen, honey! You know there's rats in there! The size a' ponies... Have you seen them?! I bet they seen you..." There was a cruel tone in the splicers voice.

He crushed the impulse to rush ahead. He knew Anna wouldn't fall the splicer's lies, but he was going to make sure the splicer was dead before he left the bookstore. The splicer continued trying to scare Anna to leave the vent.

"How much you weigh, sweetie? 'Bout 40 pounds? You know, they got rats in there double that..."

He moved forward enough he could see part of the turret. The splicer was further to the right and out of sight. He switched over to Possession, took a step forward so he could see the turret fully and cast the Plasmid on it. The possessed turret quickly turned, opened fire on something and then exploded.

Damn it! There was a frosty up there. While the splicers were still a little off balance from the turret attack, he rushed forward casting Bronco the moment he saw the frosty standing near the vent. The Plasmid chained to the second splicer who was standing in front of vent had been the one trying to scare Anna. The range was short so he opened with his shotgun and three shots later it was over.

No other splicers were about so he reloaded the shotgun and closed the vent. Just one vent left to close.

As he started to turn around he heard Elisabeth yell. "DeWitt! Nitro!"

He finished turning just in time to get hit by a bomb. His Shield shattered under the hit and hurt him. He cast Bronco at the nitro standing at the top of the flight of stairs and raised the shotgun to shoot the splicer. As he did, the suspended splicer quickly pulled something from grenade box he carried and threw it on the floor creating a large cloud of grey smoke.

Damn it! He couldn't see the splicer through the cloud created by the smoke bomb. He fired twice at where he'd last seen the splicer hoping to get a hit. The smoke started to dissipate, but he knew that the Bronco's effects wear off before the smoke cleared.

He switched to the carbine and moved further off to the right over towards the destroyed turret. As he did, he heard the splicer hit the floor and start to run. But which way? Then the smoke cleared more and he saw the nitro running down the stairs. He fired one burst from the carbine and the splicer's corpse tumbled down the rest of the stairs. Guess he'd gotten at least one hit with the shotgun.

He reloaded his weapons and searched the two dead splicers by the vent. Just a little money, some food, Tommy Gun ammo and the frosty had a lock pick. Odd that most of the frosties had lock picks, not that he was complaining.

There were a couple of dead bodies in the area and he found a few more dollars on them. Both of them had been shot multiple times and there were a lot of bullet holes around them. Looked like the turret had cut them down.

They headed down the stairs down to the first floor where the dead nitro splicer lay. He had some carbine ammo on him, but nothing else. Nearby was the counter with a pair of cash registers on it and there was a small amount of money scattered on the floor next to one of them. A box on the counter had a sandwich in it and under the counter on a shelf was a lock pick.

As he walked towards the doors he noticed a book display with one book prominently featured. It was called "Never Let The Bastards See You Sweat" written by none other than Frank Fontaine. There were signs scattered all through the place that advertised the book. Frank Fontaine, a writer? A self-help writer at that? Ridiculous. Just another grift. He'd never met Fontaine, but he knew enough that he wouldn't have trusted him to hold his seat on an empty tram.

They walked out into the corridor with Elizabeth in the lead. She really shouldn't be doing that, might get herself into trouble he couldn't get her out of. Going through the bookstore got them around the security gate and the last vent was a close by to the left. Beyond the vent was the Appliances Showroom and on the opposite side of the corridor was a Circus of Values.

He took a few steps and stopped. Elizabeth stopped as well. "Hear that?" She asked.

He did. It was someone humming a song and it came from the vent! They both ran to the vent. Elizabeth got there first and climbed up the vent to hear better.

"Anna! Anna, its daddy. Please be a good girl come out of there. It's safe now, I'm here. Anna? Please, please come out." She just had to come out. Where was she?

Anna's humming away. She was moving down pipe towards the Appliances Showroom. Why didn't she come out when she heard his voice? Why didn't she come out? Why?

"Mr. DeWitt, she's not coming. Now let's get the rest of these vents sealed. It's the only way."

He didn't want to close the vent, but Elizabeth was right. Why hadn't Anna come? He slammed the vent closed as an icy hand slowly crushed his heart. Something was wrong with her. His fault. He failed her. But what was wrong with her? Would he be able to fix it?

He turned to Elizabeth. "Where's the exhaust?"

"In the Atrium."

Couldn't get to the Atrium by going back down the corridor. Splicers had it barricaded. Had to be another way through. Best bet was the showroom. Before they went on he possessed the Circus of Values and purchased a small Health Kit, a small bottle of EVE and some Pistol ammo.

Next stop, the Appliances Showroom.

End Chapter Five


	6. Chapter 6

Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

Chapter 6

He and Elizabeth walked to the double doors of the Appliances Showroom and found they were locked. With all the locks this place, no wonder there were so many lock picks left lying around. Ryan was probably making a tidy profit from selling them. Bet he was selling the locks as well.

"Fancy putting those lock picking skills to work?" He asked Elizabeth.

"I'll give it a whirl." He'd never figure out why she was so happy to be picking a lock.

Moments later. "There you go." She said and turned back towards him. As he expected, all trace of the enjoyment at picking the lock was gone, replaced by the cold disdainful expression she always wore when she looked at him.

The doors opened out onto a large balcony with stairs on either side going down to the main floor more than 30 feet below. The place was big, at least a couple hundred feet on a side with a ceiling of at least 60 feet. In general this area was in good shape with little flooding and not much vandalism. Four large round pillars supported the ceiling around a central area where there was a mock-up a living room and kitchen complete with mannequins representing a family. All along the walls and other places were displays for waffle irons, stoves, blenders, Fontaine Vacs, toasters and more. The larger displays had spotlight on them making the rest of the room seem darker. Running around room were pnumeo lines, which would be handy in a fight.

And there was going to be one.

Off to the right side better than halfway across the room were two splicers talking to each other. A third splicer was walking up to them. They hadn't noticed him or Elizabeth yet so this was a good chance to get all three with a Devil's Kiss trap. He threw the trap and actually hit one of the splicers by accident. That didn't stop it from going off and all three were consumed by the explosion and killed.

His EVE was still at full because of the Filthy Leech Gear and he started walking down the right hand flight of stairs. They were half way down a splicer came out from and alcove on the right and fired a shotgun at him. The splicer was better than 30 feet away and his Shield took the hit well enough, but he couldn't let the splicer get off another shot. Elizabeth was behind him and the next shot might hit her. He cast Bucking Bronco and rushed forward to finish the splicer off with his shotgun.

After checking to make sure there were no more splicers about, he searched the four corpses for supplies finding a little money, food and some EVE. The rest of the showroom didn't look like it would be worth searching so he and Elizabeth headed for the back of the showroom. He noticed there were three Tears here, a decoy, a box of medical kits and a barrel with carbines. Really did need any of them right now. At the back of the room were a set of doors and on the floor in the corner was a jar of EVE.

He tired the door and found it was: "Locked from the other side. How the hell are –"

"Look." Elizabeth said and pointed to an air vent to the left of the door. The rectangular vent was a good six foot off the floor.

"I think I can squeeze through. Gimme a boost."

Didn't look there was any other way. He bent down locking his fingers together for Elizabeth to step into. He then carefully boosted her up to the vent. She climbed through the vent and into the room beyond. With nothing else to do he looked around and noticed some batteries for the Radar Range. Guess he should make sure it had all the "ammunition" it could hold even if was of two minds about using it. Was a pistol there as well, but he had enough ammo for that at the moment.

As he reloaded he heard a voice coming from the entrance. "I heard the little rat scurrying this way... Gotta be around somewhere."

More damn splicers and it sounded like they were hunting for Anna.

He moved to where he had a better view of the entrance and saw two splicers run down the stairs. Probably more he hadn't seen.

"What's taking so long?" He half yelled at Elizabeth as he charged up Devil's Kiss and readied his carbine.

"I just, I can't get the -" He could hear Elizabeth working at the lock.

The two splicers were halfway across the showroom floor now and he saw a frosty on the balcony by the doors.

"Come on!" He urged Elizabeth.

"I'm just, I'm try - just give me a second."

Didn't really have a second. He threw the trap, but only one got caught in the explosion. The other splicer was a nitro and she hurled a grenade at him.

He ducked to the left and the grenade exploded behind him. He needed to get out into the showroom or he was going to get boxed in by the splicers. He ran to the left towards the vacuum cleaners firing his carbine at the nitro. He hit her, but it wasn't enough to put her down.

Two more splicer armed with carbines came running up behind the nitro. He launched Possession at one and jumped to the pneumo line. Lucky he did. Just as he landed on the line a wave of ice shards came from the right side hit the area he had just been standing. There were two frosties, not just one.

He hadn't gotten a Winter Shield, but riding the pneumo line made him hard to hit. The splicer he'd possessed was already dead, killed by attacks from the nitro and the other splicer with a carbine. He jumped off the line landing on the splicer with the carbine killing him. Another two bursts from the carbine killed the nitro before she could throw another bomb.

He paid for it though. As the nitro fell he got hit by ice from one of the frosties. His Shield was mostly gone and he was so COLD! He jumped back up on the peumo line to escape and this time he got the Winter Shield. Best to make the most of it.

He reversed direction and jumped off the line to do a strike on the frosty standing by the doors. The frosty's dead body was thrown back and smashed into the wall. That left the frosty down on the showroom floor. The frosty threw another wave of ice shards at him and he ducked back and the shards exploded when they hit the wall over his head.

He stood back up with the Radar Range in his hand. Maybe that would work better on the frosty than bullets. He focused the beam on the frosty and the frost took a few steps then stopped moving as he heated up. A moment later the splicer exploded.

He might have felt a little sorry for the splicer, but the son of a bitch had been after his daughter.

He reloaded his weapons and searched the bodies before walking back to the doors at the back of the showroom. Two more lock picks, money and some ammo. As he got near the doors Elizabeth pushed them open from the other side. "Well, you don't seem any worse for wear."

"Speak for yourself." He STILL felt cold from getting hit by the frosty.

He picked up the bottle of EVE to replenish what he had used and walked through the doors. Next to the door was a dead splicer with a set of lock picks in his hand. Looked like he had been trying to open the lock, but hadn't been fast enough and been killed. What killed him wasn't clear.

This area was a locker room, which was a bit strange since the doors were made some kind of glass and you could see through them. A locker opposite the doors was open and had a Tommy Gun inside of it. On the right side of the locker room was a passageway that went a short distance and turned to the left. What caught his attention was the sound of flowing water over to the left. Probably why the floor was covered with water.

There was another set of broken pipes with water gushing across a wide gap at the end of the locker room. He walked to the edge and looked around. There had been a walkway here before and looked like when the pipes broke they destroyed it. On the other side of the gap the corridor continued and there was an office to the left side. In the window of the office he could see a Gear. He glanced down saw that there were more lockers down below along with the remains of the walkway and broken water pipes. He could also see three dead bodies, might have been on the walkway when it collapsed. There was also a security turret down there. The room was partially flooded and it didn't look worth the effort.

But the Gear in that office on the other side of the gap, that was worth taking a little time.

He cast Old Man Winter and the water froze to form a bridge across the gap. He and Elizabeth walked across the ice bridge to the office. The corridor continued past the office, but that could wait. The first thing he picked up was the Gear. It was "Roar to Life". If his Shield broke he would be able to move faster and do more damage with his weapons. Also the clip on the weapon he was using would refill. How did that all work? Didn't matter, so long as it DID work.

Next he picked up an Audio Diary that was sitting on a desk.

* * *

 _Yi Suchong: Observation #22_

 _October the 15th, 1958_

 _Observation #22 regarding unknown phenomena. What is source of phenomena? Suchong employ observers; observer task to find more phenomena. Observer reports back young woman, appear from phenomena. And just as soon, young woman disappear. Observer has nothing else to report on topic. If Suchong can find this woman, she will make interesting new phenomena._

* * *

So Suchong had been here studying tears. So he created the Tear Plasmid to help study them? That didn't make sense. Elizabeth had the Tear Plasmid, had she worked for Suchong? Was she still working for him? She could have been hired recently….

Too damn many unanswered questions. Until he had some answered he was going to have to be more careful. He'd gotten away with kidnapping Suchong because he hadn't left any evidence that could be tracked back to him. But he was sure that a he was a suspect and a bastard like Suchong was unlikely to forgive or forget what happened to him. He'd probably already said too much to Elizabeth about it.

He took a moment to search the office finding a few dollars, food, tea and a couple bottles of booze. Whoever's office this was they must have been pretty high up. It had a refrigerator, a small television and a couple very comfortable chairs. They left the office and went down the corridor which quickly led to a flight of stairs going up. But someone had blocked the stairs with all kinds of heavy furniture. No going that way. There was another set of lock pick sitting on the floor in front of the blocked stairs.

He looked up and saw the shadows cast by two dead bodies with ropes around their necks. On the wall crudely written in red paint were the words "Turn coats". He moved forward and saw that the bodies here actually mannequins. Guess some splicer had hung them up there either as a warning or was mad enough to think the mannequins were people.

After he and Elizabeth walked over the ice bridge back into the locker room he started giving it a quick search. Found some more money, more ammunition and a container of EVE. In many of the open lockers were posters showing a stylized man in a white shirt with rolled up sleeves and suspenders. The text on the posters said "Atlas Voice of the People" and one said "Who is Atlas?"

A lot of people in Rapture were asking that same question nowadays.

Fontaine had his own posters up. "The Manager Knows Best" and the "The Slacker Is Not Your Friend". It was a regular propaganda war in here.

He and Elizabeth walked down the passage way which took several turns and had several small flights of stairs going up. Along the way they passed a number of small and large shipping creates. Most of the crates all had labels for clothes, electronics and the like, but a few were marked "Provisions". Small empty crates of Hip Hop Cola were all over as well. They also found ammunition for his shotgun and pistol along with some more EVE. Had all the ammo he could carry now for all his weapons now.

As they neared the end of the passage he had another spell. He had a flash of a dark alley with two men standing further down. One of the men had a beard and was holding something. Then it was over. Damn. He'd had more spells since he's meeting this Elizabeth than he'd had in the past year combined. At least this one had been fast and he hadn't gotten a nosebleed.

At the end of the passage they found what looked to be a large storage room with window that looked out into the Atrium. The place was big, though not quite as big as the Electronics showroom was. He wasn't sure how tall it was, but it probably went near all the way the top of the building.

The Atrium was dominated on the left side by a 50 foot tall gold Art Deco statue of a woman with wide open arms and large wings on her back. Framing the statue was a huge window through which they could see the lights of Rapture above. There had been a lot of talk about the stature last year when it been put in since it looked like an angel to a lot of people. Fontaine probably installed it just to twist Ryan's tail. In front of the statue was a large café with bunch of booths and tables. A sign proudly proclaimed it served "Fontaine's Signature Coffee Blend".

One the far wall of the Atrium was a wide walkway dotted with advertising and display cases about ten feet above the main floor. This walkway started midway on the wall and ran over to the right going up to a large upper level about 20 feet off the main floor. The upper level was about a quarter of the Atrium and looked to have been display area for knickknacks, souvenirs, candy and even Fontaine's damn book. Two large square columns supported this upper level and went upward to the roof high above.

There were a number of doors leading out of the Atrium. Hardware, Radio Department, Interior Décor, Cookware, and the Children's Department. Some of the doors had been blocked off by someone piling some of the tables from the café and other furniture in front of them. He noticed that a barricade in front of the doors to the hardware department had been brushed aside. Running around the Atrium were pneumo lines and he noticed four lighting sconces that he could jump up to with the Air-grabber. Hoped he wouldn't have to do any fighting in here. It would scare Anna and she could even get hurt.

The exhaust vent they wanted was built into the square support column closest them, not 50 feet away. There was a set of door leading out of the store room he and Elizabeth were in and a long flight of stairs leading down to the main floor. There were two way to get to the upper level from the main floor. A stairway on the opposite side of the Atrium that went to the walkway and another long wide set of stairs on this side went from the main floor to the upper level.

They left the store room and started down the stairs to the main floor. As they went down he noticed a lot of tears. One over the exhaust vent was a tear for a freight hook. Wasn't close enough to figure out what the other ones were. Looking over the railing he frowned. The bottom of the stairway going from the main floor to the upper level had been destroyed leaving a pile of twisted metal. Mixed in with the broken stairs was the even more body of male splicer. They would have to walk to other side of the Atrium and use the other flight of stairs to get to the upper level.

The walk gave him a chance to look around a little more. Below the upper level was a short wide flight of stairs leading down to a set of doors. Through the glass he could see that they had been blocked on the other side by furniture and a pair of washers and dryers. What were the splicers so scared of?

Well, whatever it was, it didn't seem to be around right now and he hoped it stayed that way.

As he and Elizabeth walked across the cafe he got a better look at the tears and noted the location of some jars of EVE. One tear was a crate of Health Kits, another was a barrel with some kind of machine gun he didn't recognize. Probably something else from Columbia. Another tear held a barrel of carbines and the last tear had what he thought was a statue of in it. But as they got closer he realized it was some kind of big strange robot that looked like George Washington. The robot had a white powdered wig, fancy Revolutionary War uniform and all. There were flags hanging off poles on its shoulders and large gears stuck out of its back. In its hands was huge Gatling Gun..

"What's that?" He asked indicating the robot.

"A Motorized Patriot." Elizabeth told him in a slightly flat voice.

The tone of her voice told him a lot. She had personal experience with one of those Motorized Patriots. The flags on the robots back had the same Star and Shield symbol as was on the crate with the carbines Elizabeth had brought through the tear outside Jack Frost's Village. Good chance this Elizabeth was from this Columbia or had spent a lot of time there. There was no Tear Plasmid and she didn't work for Suchong. She might even be the girl mentioned in that last Audio Diary. So why was Elizabeth helping him find Anna? One thing he did know was that he was from New York, not Columbia, so what was the connection?

"Sure it won't attack us?" He asked.

"I'm sure."

"Be best if we don't have to find out."

They walked up the steps and towards the vent. He could have used the pneumo lines and gotten there faster, but they made a lot of noise which was the last thing he wanted at the moment. As they walked past the doors to the hardware department a young girl's voice rang out from ahead of them.

"My daddy's smarter than Einstein, stronger than Hercules, and lights a fire with a snap of his finger! Are you as good as MY daddy, mister?"

The voice was coming from a display to left and back of the support column with the vent. On top of the display was a ten foot tall statue of a Little Sister in a pink and white dress and on the shelves were Little Sister dolls. On the front of the display was a poster saying "Do you want to be a Little Sister?"

When they got to the vent he noticed that the railing in front of the vent was missing. Something had ripped it out and that wasn't an easy thing to do. Elizabeth stepped up to the vent and listened.

"No sign of the girl. Looks like we'll need to turn up the thermostat if we're going to flush her out." She stepped back from the vent and pointed. "It's over this way."

He started walking around to the back of the support column. "We're not going to burn her." He told Elizabeth sternly.

In back of the column were two sets of doors that led to a wide corridor. Some distance down the corridor was a barricade made up of washing machines, furniture and refrigerators. Beyond the barricade he could see the huge corridor where they had been earlier. He could hear the splicers talking as the worked at moving something heavy, probably building up the barricade more. Just before the barricade on the left was a short hallway with a sign saying "Employee's Only". At the end of the hall was a Securis Door.

He went through the doors first in a moderately sized "L" shaped room with some smaller pipes and electrical conduit running on the walls, several large crates, and some storage lockers. On the back wall were some shelves and another bottle of EVE. On the left wall was the black thermostat that controlled the heat.

He ignored it.

He had something else in mind that didn't involve burning Anna. He walked to the back of the room and around the corner looking down at the floor. As he and Elizabeth had walked from the Atrium he'd noticed that there were grates in the floor and below the grates was the heating pipe that Anna was hiding in. When he turned the corner he found that the grate had been taken off and there where tools nearby.

"Just what we need." He told Elizabeth.

Elizabeth gave him a puzzled look. "I don't understand."

He pulled out the Air-grabber. "Did you like loud noises when you were young?"

"No, not really. Why?"

He answered by hitting the exposed heating pipe with the Air-Grabber four times. The sound of metal on metal was extremely loud and even after he stopped he could still hear echo's running up and down the pipe. "Anna's doesn't like them either. To get away from the noise she will head to the end of the vent She should be near enough to hear me."

As they started back to the vent Elizabeth told him "She didn't listen to you before, why should she now?"

"Ever have a favorite stuffed toy?"

"Yes, it was a… What does that matter?" Elizabeth voice suddenly turned harsh.

Huh. Someone seems to have taken her favorite toy from her when she was young. "Theodore is her favorite. If he calls her, she should come looking for him." Still didn't understand why Anna didn't come when he called her and he prayed this would work. The alternative of turning up the heat was unthinkable. "When she comes out to get him, I can catch her."

"And what am I supposed to do." Elizabeth asked as she crossed her arms.

"Just make sure she can't get back into the vent."

They were at the vent now, so he pulled out the teddy bear and put it about six feet out in front of the vent. The bear faced the vent in a sitting position and he'd tried to make it look like the bear was waiting.

Then he went vent and called in the deep voice he used for Theodore. "Where is Anna? Theodore is lonely. Won't Anna come out to play? Theodore wants to see his friend."

He quickly walked over to where Elizabeth stood on the right side of the column, out of sight of the vent, but where they could still see the bear.

Several moments later they heard Anna's voice. "Theodore?"

She was right at the vent opening. He controlled the urge to run to the vent. Anna's voice sounded strange. Must be from the vent.

"There you are Theodore! I missed you!" Anna ran up to the bear and hugged him.

Now!

He rushed forward to grab Anna, but made too much noise and she heard him. Anna shrieked in fear and before he could grab her, she ran towards the other side of the column still clutching Theodore.

"Anna! Its daddy, it's ok!" Why didn't she know him?

He grabbed and missed by inches. She was faster than ever and she screamed for help as she ran. Then she stumbled and fell, crawling towards the Little Sister doll display. He could easily grab her now, but afraid he might hurt her if he did.

She got to the display and put her back to the "Don't you want to be a Little Sister?" poster and buried her face in Theodore. All the time she was saying "No, no, no! No!"

"Anna, it's ok. I'm here, daddy's here. I'm not going to hurt you." He crouched down and reached out his hand. He needed to calm her down. Anna lifted her head to look at him.

His heart stopped.

Anna's blue eyes glowed bright yellow.

She was a Little Sister.

His daughter had been turned into a Little Sister.

"Mr. Bubbles!" Anna screamed.

An instant later the doors to the hardware department were smashed from their hinges. Through the destroyed doors a massive dark shape emerged, red lights glowed on its metal helmet and the huge drill on its right arm spun.

A Bouncer.

The Big Daddy roared loud enough to shake the floor and pointed the drill at him. He jumped back just as the drill launched and flew through the space he had been an instant before.

The Big Daddy was protecting Anna and would kill him and Elizabeth to do it.

"Keep Anna from climbing into the vent! I'll handle the Big Daddy!" He yelled at Elizabeth.

*How* he was going to handle the Bouncer he had no idea.

He opened fire with his shotgun. He didn't do much damage, but it would keep the big guy's attention on him and away from Elizabeth.

The Bouncer roared again and charged at him. He didn't dodge in time and was hit, his Shield shattered under the impact and he was knocked back. The Bouncer drew back his arm to fire off the drill again. Had to stop it. He cast Bucking Bronco and the Daddy was picked up off the floor and hung suspended. But it was only for a couple of moments before he crashed back down. It was still enough time for him to fire off another shot from the shotgun and then jump to a pneumo line. He needed to get some range and draw Bouncer away from Elizabeth.

As he rode on the line he switched his to the Quick Handed Gear and pistol before jumping off to the main floor. As he turned to fire, the Daddy ran to the edge of the upper level where the railing had been broken, jumped off and landed with a resounding crash. The impact must have shook the whole building.

He quickly fired off seven shots from the revolver as the Bouncer ran through the café to get close enough to attack. For all his size, the big guy moved damn fast. He reloaded the pistol and jumped back up to the pneumo line, getting a Winter Shield heading over to the left. He didn't get far before the Bouncer launched the drill at him.

And this time the Bouncer didn't miss.

The drill knocked him off the pneumo line and he found himself being pulled back toward the Big Daddy by the winch build in the Bouncer's arm. He landed on the floor right in front of the Daddy. Before he could do anything the Bouncer slammed him with the drill, breaking the Winter Shield.

Fortunately his Shield had recovered and took the rest of the hit, but it was down to half. Couldn't let it get another hit on him. He cast Bronco again the Bouncer was thrust into the air. He ran off to the right yelling "Elizabeth! That one!"

Through the opened tear the Motorized Patriot emerged yelling "For Family!" in a deep voice.

The Bouncer was between him and the robot and he intended to make the most of it.

The Daddy crashed back to the ground and he started to fire the Tommy Gun at him. The Bouncer ignored the damage and started running towards him. What was taking that stupid robot so long!?

He'd emptied the entire magazine into the Bouncer and started to reload when a stream of heavy round hit the Big Daddy in the back. The Bouncer quickly turned around to meet the new threat and charged at the robot. Was the Patriot cranking a handle of the gatling gun?

The Daddy would quickly destroy the robot so he fired off a bolt of Shock Jockey, immobilizing the Bouncer. He quickly emptied the Tommy Gun into the big guy and Patriot continued to fire.

The Shock Jockey wore off and the Bouncer charged at the robot smashing into it and causing heavy damage. In response, the Patriot swung its gun around hitting the Big Daddy with the barrels. It hurt the Bouncer some, but not nearly as much as the return hit with the drill.

As the Bouncer and Patriot traded blows he opened up with his carbine. Why wouldn't the damn Bouncer Fall!

He was just about to hit the Big Daddy again with Shock Jockey when the Bouncer slammed his drill into the robot and with the sound of someone hitting a gong, the Patriot fell to it its knees and then to the floor. He used up the last of his EVE and fired off a bolt of Jockey, then quickly reloaded his now empty carbine. By the time the Shock Jockey wore off, he'd put half a clip into it.

"DeWitt, catch!"

He caught a bottle of EVE and quickly used it. The Bouncer ran at him as he used up the last of him ammo. But as he fired, he charged up a Devil's Kiss trap. The Big Daddy slammed his drill into the floor sending an electrical shock through the floor. Damn it! He could barely move and the Bouncer was setting up for another charge!

He set the Devil's Kiss trap down just a few feet in front of him just as the Bouncer charged. The trap detonated, engulfing the Daddy in flames. He pulled his pistol and tried to back away in case the Bouncer was still alive.

He didn't need to.

The Bouncer lay on the floor, dead.

The effect of the shock wave wore and he ran to the upper level. As he got to the top of the stairs he saw Anna pull herself into the vent.

He ran to vent and looked inside. "Anna!" She wasn't there! "ANNA!"

She was gone.

His daughter was gone.

He turned to Elizabeth. She was standing calmly with her arms crossed, a look of hatred on her face.

"Why? Why did you let…?"

"I wanted you to see what you did before you died." Elizabeth told him her voice full of contempt.

What?

"You just had to do it again, didn't you." She demanded in a hate filled voice. She walked up and shoved him back angrily. "You're as bad a Comstock!"

He felt strange, like his head was too full. "I.. didn't…" Hard to think, everything was getting blurry. Having another spell.

Elizabeth shoved him again, even harder this time and he staggered back, nearly falling.

"YOU SOLD YOUR DAUGHTER!"

 _He was in New York, running down an alley. It was dark and raining, but up ahead he could see two men and light coming from a hole in the wall. One of the men, a Gentleman with red hair, and a fancy tan suit was looking at the hole rather nervously._

 _A Lady's voice came from the hole. "Come on!" It sounded strange, distorted._

 _The other man wore a plain dark suit, had brown hair, a beard and was holding something wrapped up in a blanket._

 _Anna._

 _"Hey... Hey, the deal is off, you hear me? The deal is off! Give her back. Give her back!" He yelled as he ran towards them. Had to stop this._

 _The Gentleman ignored him as he ran closer. "The tear is becoming rather unstable." He called to the Lady on the other side of the hole._

 _He ignored the Gentleman, he didn't matter. It was that bearded bastard he wanted. He grabbed him yelling. "Give her back, you son of a bitch!"_

 _The Gentleman had stepped through the hole as he struggled to wrestle Anna away from the bastard. But he was losing and the bastard was trying to get through the hole! If pulled too hard he would hurt, maybe even kill Anna._

 _"GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!"_

 _Using his anger, he shoved the bastard through the hole and slammed him against a piece of machinery on the other side. Crashing into the machinery caught the bastard off guard and he loosened his hold on Anna. He tore his daughter from the bastard's grasp and took a step back._

 _Sparks flew from the machine and the bastard screamed as electricity played over him._

 _The Lady yelled. "The device, somethings wrong!"_

 _He had to get back through the hole, back home. There was a flash of light and he was falling, the ground rushing up towards him._

 _He wrapped his arms around his daughter to protect her the best he could. This was going to h…_

He looked around slightly dazed. He was back in Rapture. No, hadn't left. "I… remember." He was trying to put everything in his head back in order. Too much, would take a minute.

The Gentleman and a Lady were standing off to the right. The Lady had the same color hair, same blue eyes and even very similar clothes as the Gentleman. They were like twins.

"It's quite extra ordinary actually." The Lady stated.

"Passing through two tears rapidly, followed by a substantial fall and not dying?" The Gentleman asked.

"Admittedly his survival was extra ordinary, but I was thinking of his arrival in Rapture of all places." The Lady responded.

"There always did seem to be a connection between Columbia and Rapture." The Gentleman countered.

Those two could wait for now. He shook his head slightly to finish clearing it and turned back to face Elizabeth. Her face was a mixture of disgust and hate. He noticed that the pendant she wore at her neck was missing. The silver and black one showing a bird.

"You sold the girl twice. You were the only one who had a chance, and you sold her again!" Elizabeth accused him.

"No, no I didn't. Not this time." He told her sadly. "You've every right to hate me for what I did to you, but I didn't sell Anna."

The twins stopped arguing and looked at him.

Elizabeth threw up her hands in disgust. "I suppose you're going to tell me you left her with those men for her own good."

He had to make her understand, to listen to him, to listen to herself. "Those men were going to smuggle Anna out of Rapture and get her to the surface."

"What? Why..?" That stopped her for a moment but he needed to capitalize on it quickly.

"Haven't you paid attention what's going on down here?" He asked quietly. "Even if I thought I could stop Anna from… from being turned into a Little Sister, Rapture's headed for a civil war even worse than the one in Columbia. Was the only way she would be safe."

"And what do YOU know about Columbia?" Elizabeth demanded, her anger growing again. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the surprised look on the Luteces faces.

Huh, a first.

"I was there, just… couldn't remember. I broke you out of the Tower on Monument Island. Songbird, Fink, Chen Lin, the ghost of Lady Comstock. You had to kill Fitzroy to protect a child. I killed Comstock to stop him from hurting you. You showed me the Sea of Doors."

There wasn't a brand on the back of his right hand, but maybe there should be one. His fault Elizabeth was like this.

As he spoke Elizabeth's expression changed from anger, to disbelief, then realization and horror.

When he was done talking, she took a slow step towards him and reached out a trembling right hand to touch his face. "Are you real?" The expression on her face was heartbreaking.

"Real enough." He told her.

"Mr. DeWitt!..." Robert called urgently.

"Behind you." Rosalind finished.

He started to turn when he was suddenly hit hard and sent flying through the air.

Then he was on the floor feeling terrible, must have blacked out for a moment. As his vision cleared, he saw the Big Daddy stomping towards him.

Then Elizabeth ran between him and the enraged Bouncer. "Stop! Stop it, don't hurt him!" She yelled.

Damn it! That's not Songbird! He'll kill her!

The Bouncer pulled back his arm to strike. He got his feet under him and jumped towards Elizabeth and brought up his Shield. As the Bounced swung, he put himself between Elizabeth and the drill. His Shield shattered and he was knocked into Elizabeth and they both went flying off the upper level and towards the main floor below.

He wrapped his arms around Elizabeth to protect her the best he could. This was going to h…

End Chapter Six

End Burial At Sea Episode 1: What Might Have Been

* * *

That's the end of Episode 1. I don't know when, or even if I will be writing "Burial At Sea Episode 2: What Might Have Been". I'm not really sure if my skills are up to it, but I don't people to be hanging *that* much, so I will say that Booker is not dead.


End file.
